To Be
by junior-wheel
Summary: Only the Chosen One has enough hope to take the last light of a dying world and make anew a thousand suns. Passive, conflict-avoiding, and constantly tardy for training, Tia insists that she is hardly Chosen One material. Rempo would agree if the Book weren't so adamant. Hope is to see not what is, but what can be. "And you think I have it?" "I think you are it." Several pairings.
1. Chosen

Hello! Over the spring break I visited **dmc87**, found this game in one of her many cluttered drawers and decided to play it! The gameplay confused me at first because it kind of just throws you in there, but I got the hang of it eventually and definitely did not regret dusting it off for her.

I fell in love with the premise and the characters immediately, especially the silent protagonist! Actually, at the thought of what the silent protagonist could be thinking. The booklet in the case describes Yumil as easygoing and Tia as naive, but sometimes some events/dialogue in the game are so hilariously absurd that I wonder how the protagonist doesn't get just a little embittered by them. Especially given their situation! So instead of going with kind, naive Tia who helps everyone with her heart of gold, I wanted to see a slightly sardonic, easygoing Tia shaped by her experiences growing up as a poor orphan who neither faces challenges head on nor speaks her mind most of the time, at least in the beginning. Of course, she's not completely heartless; she just likes her way of life, aka not getting into trouble by being a hero, so Rempo has his work cut out for him. I don't want to say too much. Hopefully the story explains itself! I haven't written in a while so this is my canonball back into that pond. :)**  
**

And! For those of you who were drawn in by the Romance genre (I know I am, every time), the romance doesn't happen for a few chapters. Based on the outline I have on me at the moment, it'll start to develop in the 10th chapter at the earliest, because I'd like very much to see growth with regard to Tia's character and friendships before she starts falling in love. (Not to mention the maturity level she would need for it.) This is a Heath/Tia story, so if you dislike the pairing, apologies in advance. Just fyi, other characters get their own romance, too, because I ship like FedEx.

Neither the DS game Avalon Code nor its wonderful characters belong to me! It was developed by Matrix Software and published by Marvelous Entertainment USA/Xseed Games, so everything about Avalon Code belongs to them.

Anyway, enough from me! I hope you enjoy it. :)

* * *

**To Be**

**1: Chosen**

_Stars bundled in roaring flames hurtled from the sky, bursting through rock and tree, heaving through water and flesh, setting the earth aflame._

_In a mountain at the edge of the world, high up on a silver tower overlooking a once sunny hill, a boy cloaked in red with hair like fire gasped and whooped with every burst._

_"Guys!" He pushed from the balcony railing and rushed inside, arms waving with excitement, though his friends needed no indication other than the expression on his face. "You have to see this! Come on!"_

_The topmost room of their spotless tower was filled with tomes and ancient artifacts that looked as great and powerful as in the moment they had been crafted. It was connected to a study area by an open archway and could only be exited through a door to winding stairs that seemed never to end. Against an old rocking chair most valuable to them, a golden-haired man in armor shot the boy a reproving glance with eyes red and blue. In his arms, a woman dressed in flower petals cowered with her knees to her chest._

_"Rempo," scolded the man, "you know Mieli hates this part."_

_"But—but it's almost here!"_

_"Rempo," an authoritative voice called out from the study area, "Don't be unkind."_

_Clothed in soft sheets of ice, a girl floated in from the door and chuckled. "Rempo. Obtuse, as always."_

_"Shut it, Neaki," Rempo scowled, but sighed. "Sorry, Mieli." He walked out of the room, fire doused. Watching him leave with the curl of her lip easing, Neaki followed him anyway._

_The golden-haired man rubbed Mieli's back for comfort until something caught his eye. Curiously, he lifted her from his lap and set her on the chair to follow the trail of paper torn from the Book and crumpled, scratched out, laid across the floor as if for some grand design. It led him to the study area, to the only thing in the tower that looked as old as time itself; and it was._

_He flipped through the pieces he'd picked up as he leaned against the archway. Detailed sketches of people, but he could hardly make them out. Lines were scratched in every direction to prevent their existence completely, if they weren't almost-ripped in half. It wasn't anger. It was frustration. For what?_

_Before the Book sat a young man with short red hair. He didn't look special—he had been nothing but a blacksmith, after all—and his eyes were a dull brown, but therein lay the magic. Those were eyes that had seen all of the world, and in the young man was a power the most formidable witches could only fathom._

_"Leave them, Ur," he said, nose and pen buried deep into the Book's pages. "I'm not going to use them."_

_"Kullervo," said Ur, smiling slightly, "Drawing again? You know it's easier to simply code scan."_

_Kullervo stiffened, then finally spared him a glance. After moments of a pensive stare, his mouth broke into a smile. "You know it's better when I draw it out."_

_Ur knew this. The Book would capture the essence of what its Chosen One desired more if he made it with his own hand. Now nearly as powerful as the Book itself, Kullervo had redrawn many parts of the land, erasing maps to create terrain that better fit its inhabitants even before the world's end. Ur knew that because of him the world had become more beautiful in a matter of months, though its destruction could not be forestalled._

_"I've perfected her this time," declared Kullervo, interrupting his thoughts._

_"You've perfected what?"_

_"...The Book. Here—" Kullervo beckoned, flipping over thousands of pages as Ur approached, and showed him one with a creature whose two fingers could crush a small cottage it once called home. "Take a look."_

_Ur's eyebrows furrowed. "A...giant? You wish to be a giant in the new world?"_

_"Yes," Kullervo grinned. "You know...it'll be easier to find things. And deal with everyone."_

_Ur laughed. "Oh? And what about the small spaces?"_

_Kullervo shrugged, "You four will be there for that, won't you?"_

_"Of course," Ur reassured him. "But humans will fear you."_

_Kullervo sighed. "No," he said resolutely, though he sat against his chair and sighed like a wizened old man. It was worlds different from the hope Ur caught in his eyes. "I will rule them, lead their nations to prosperity, but after long I will leave them alone. Surely they can fend for themselves."_

_"And what will you do?"_

_Turning to the cover, Kullervo smiled at the Book and failed to catch its doleful gaze. He was in a time far before the end and one far after. When he returned, he looked to Ur. "We will travel the new world, my friend."_

_"That sounds...good."_

_"Yes! In the new world—we'll have everything we want. It will be perfect."_

_Ur's smile was wracked by Rempo's screaming as he flew into the room, an arm-sized version of himself from earlier. "It's coming!" he cried happily, "The new world! Get ready!"_

_Kullervo knew it better than anyone. He hadn't felt it in the beginning, but as days passed and the last months of the world ran their course, he felt the power of creation stirring from within him, between him and the Book. It became almost too painful, to have so much power and be required to wait so long to use it for what he desired, but he would not show it to his friends and worry them. They likely knew of the sensation, present as they were through every cycle, and he appreciated their attempts to alleviate it. And it was easing, finally—the Book was taking the life of this world to give to the new, from him especially. His power was draining. Soon, there would only be hope left. He had done all he could._

_Mieli and Neaki leapt into his study as well, flying into his arms with Rempo and Ur, who had spun and fallen to his smaller self. "Heh heh, it was nice knowing you, Kullervo!" Rempo laughed, flippant to the end. The Chosen One expected nothing less._

_Neaki attempted to subdue a yelp as a star howled past their window and blazed into the earth, shaking the foundations of their tower. She and Mieli hated it the most no matter how many times they had seen it happen. Kullervo tightened his grip around them._

_"Don't worry," he shouted above the din of destruction, the earnest deep in his voice. "I'll see you all in our new world!"_

_"We'll see you," agreed Ur, and stars barraged the tower with fiery gusts. _

_The sky darkened, and then the world was no more._

* * *

That day had the potential to be the best day ever.

Granted, her days were often simple—convince herself to roll out of bed, find a way to eat breakfast, pick weeds and deliver gifts for nice tips, collect flowers for one of her best friends, get back to town in time for lunch with them, avoid the twins, and somehow apologize to her swordsmaster for being late, again—but today was going especially well.

Tia had some food left over from dinner and no longer needed to collect berries for breakfast, which meant she could finish her early morning deliveries for the men at Swain Road and manage to gather Fana's favourite flowers for her bouquet long before lunchtime. Now she could lie around, laze about, and do all manner of activities meant to be done languidly.

But as with most things – or according to Master Gustav, as with _her _– that potential was wasted. ("Ruined!" he would bark.)

It started with the dreams. Tia hardly ever dreamt, but when she did, she dreamt in flashes. Flashes of light searing the sky and burning craters into the ground, casting oceans aside and knocking over mountains and a shining silver tower. There was also a Book who spoke, but she tried her best to forget it. The dreams stopped when she began to speak all those years ago, but in the past month they'd returned in full force. She figured it was the novel she was trying to write twisting her imagination, or Master Gustav had commissioned someone over at Fortune Teller Alley to give her nightmares until she started getting to training early.

At any rate, Tia didn't wake quickly from the nightmare; she was all too accustomed to it. Instead, consciousness washed over her like waves over a beach, even if Kamui had only ever read of them to her and Fana.

The displeasure was still there, though. "Not again," she would have muttered weakly, still searching for her voice amidst her waking body, if a piece of paper hadn't entered her mouth. She sputtered it out and took it from her chin as she opened her eyes. Under the shade of the black monolith, Tia saw that it was a bookmark. Different shades of red depicted a frowning boy with horns. Interesting. Maybe she could give it to Fana. _Later_. With that thought, she pocketed the bookmark and closed her eyes. Back to rest and relaxation.

Even that ended too soon. A few minutes later, a light shone somewhere above her—she knew because though her eyes were closed, the brightness burned red through her eyelids. Tia grumbled. The reason, among many others, for which she loved this spot behind the monolith was that at this time in the morning it covered the sun and gave her some rest. With spring stirring up romances and gift-delivery work coming along, she hadn't been able to rest much lately.

But now it was Tia time—time to relax and nap it up—and that meant it was okay to ignore these things.

Or not.

Something else fell on her face. Given the choice, Tia would have opted for more funny-looking bookmarks, but this was flat and heavy and she knew without opening her eyes that she was going to have a painful nose for the rest of the morning. When she finally did, she felt something twitch against her chin. She lifted the item with her fingers and—

"Ahhh! Ohh! What!?"

—screamed. She threw the book on the ground, repeatedly wiping her chin with her sleeve, but that didn't feel right. The throwing part, at least. She felt better after wiping her face. Looking back at the book and wishing she was wrong, Tia was severely disappointed. On the cover of the book that had fallen on her face from who-knew-where was an eye. A yellow one—and it was blinking.

Cringing but curious, Tia got to her knees and slowly crawled over to the book. "Hey, are you...?" she said aloud, still with a grimace, and gingerly picked up the book by its edges. The back cover had an eye, too. There was no mistaking it. It was the Book from her nightmares.

"That's not right," she remarked, and turned for the monolith with some shock. A certain afterglow remained around it. For years she knew there was something wrong with it—or maybe it was better to say there was something _right _about it. She had always felt safe under its shadow; not that that explained the old Book now staring at her.

"I thought you could talk? Staring is rude," she said loudly, as though trying to scold a child, and received a stern look in return. "All right, sorry," muttered Tia. Unable to hold its gaze for too long and still utterly confused, she opened the Book. Still gingerly. She had no intention of making contact with its eyeballs again.

It was empty, except for the spread that said Sunny Hill. It was _her _hill—and every detail was perfect, from the tree some ways from her spot and the clumps of tall grass that framed the hill on both sides down to each ancient rune etched into the monolith. There was a description on both pages, but Tia skipped them for now.

"_Weird_," she enunciated. How had it even gotten there? Tia rose to her feet and peeked out from behind the Monolith. "Did anyone lose a Book with eyes?" she called out warily, and made the mistake of glancing down at the Book. The Book, because it seemed important, was staring at her again. Either way, it was clear she and the Book were all alone at Sunny Hill. Tia looked up at the sky—it was still early, and it couldn't be lunch yet. She believed the day could still be good.

Naturally, it all went downhill.

Tia was about to lie down behind the monolith again, Fana's flowers on one side and creepy-eyed Book on another, opened in the middle just in case it wanted to stare at clouds too, when she heard the creaking and clinking of metal not far behind.

It was easy to spot the gold and dark violet amidst the grassy plain, and to identify it was no task at all. Only Waisen Empire knights wore those colors. She had never seen one, only heard of them, because lesser knights donned gray, but the elite team assembled by the imperial family itself wore dark armor as though cloaked in the shadows themselves. Rex said those were just stories to keep children behaved, but she sure believed it now.

The Imperial knight approached. Tia had no problem sorting through her fight-or-flight response—he had a sword and shield, and she had a blinking Book. Pressing her back against the monolith, she waited for the knight to move. If he took no step further, she would stay there and wait till the coast was clear. If he looked around the monolith, she would inch around it as he did and run for the hills! Or the forest, as it were.

"I can smell it," said the knight with a guttural growl. She had never heard a human with such a deep voice before. It was almost frightening. At the same time, Tia lifted the yellow lace around her collar to her nose. He wasn't talking about her, right? She hadn't worked _that _hard this morning.

His footsteps sank into the grass to the right behind the monolith. Holding her breath, Tia took a step left and thanked the monolith the grass didn't crunch under her feet today, even if she loved that sound. A few more steps, and—aha! She was to the edge! And praying the knight had not, in fact, noticed her at all in the face of the great black monolith. Unfortunately, a pink coat and orange hair were not especially difficult to miss.

"There you are! And you have it—just as he predicted."

Tia froze. She turned around slowly, looking to her left and right, then smiled at the Waisen knight. He didn't look so bad. Maybe if she explained the situation properly—about how this was actually Kaleilan territory and not that he wasn't welcome or anything, but she didn't think the knights of Kaleila would be particularly happy about his presence, not that that was a threat or anything, she was just looking out for his best interests, which was that they part amicably and forget this ever happened—he would keep that sword of his sheathed.

"Hello," she said, forcing the cheer in her voice. She licked her lips before she continued, "Are you...talking to me?"

"Hand over the Book of Prophecy," ordered the knight, pointing to her chest.

She didn't realize she'd hugged the Book in fear. Gross, but its eyes were closed until she pulled away from it and saw that the Book was glaring in the direction of the knight. Its other end, at least. "Oh...this?" Tia shook her head. "This isn't a Prophecy Book. It actually has no content at all."

"Then you should have no trouble entrusting it to me, girl."

Tia blinked. "Normally," she said, "I wouldn't argue with a knight. I mean, I never do. But this isn't a Prophecy Book. It's just a drawing book, really. Not much use."

The knight growled. "Do you think me a fool!?"

"N-No!" Tia waved her free hand in the air and gave a titter that could easily be mistaken for crying. Instinct told her _beg for your life_, but her mouth was stubborn and should be executed, if it were only possible. "Not at all! It's just that—out of curiosity—why are you even here? This is Kaleilan territory, and..."

The knight's growl continued, and Tia was starting to think he was some breed of dog when, knees bent, the knight curled into himself. Out of absolutely nowhere, bulges popped out on his arms, his helmet flew from his suddenly oversized head, and he burst out of his armor, now in pieces on the ground! The knight—thing—with curled horns and fists that could pulverize her head beneath the grass roared, beating his chests angrily. In a calmer state of mind, she would have realized that it was a minotaur, or Moloch as they were known in old Faleilan, the kind she had seen in Fana's many mythology books years ago.

It was safe to say that Tia was speechless. She hadn't been to the training hall for the past two days, but that was probably a fighting stance, and those were fighting words. She wished this wasn't the reason she never argued with Waisen knights. Or spoke with them at all, or went near their territory...

"Ho-Hold on!" Tia laughed, backing away slowly. "If you want it that badly, you should have said so! You'll find I'm an exceptionably reasonable person!"

"I will find I enjoy prying the Book from a child's cold fingers," the monster laughed, too, but it was hardly the agreeable kind. It was the kind that made Tia turn her back to start running and wondering how many steps it would take for the Moloch to overtake, pummel, and bash her face into the soil. 'Here lies Tia, first found alive in this spot, then found dead. Poignant,' it would say on her tombstone, if they managed to find the body.

Mere seconds passed when Tia heard no footsteps after her. She felt heat, instead—and looked back to see the Moloch surrounded by flames.

"Hold it right there!" cried a small person with orange hair. Not orange like hers—more like fire blazing out of his scalp, and twisted horns. She knew this small person...!

Tia yanked the bookmark from her pocket, or she would have if it wasn't empty. The red bookmark had made its way into the air, and Tia caught it once more between her fingers. It was the boy on the bookmark! He somersaulted in the air and cried out happily. "Freedooom!" he cackled, throwing his head back and kicking wildly, "I'll never take this for granted again!"

Waving his thick arms at the flames licking at his body, the Moloch bellowed. "_What _is this little nuisance!?"

"Little?" the flaming boy shook an arm shackled from his elbow to his fist at the beast. Disappearing behind the monolith, he reappeared to them as a young man taller than Tia. "The name's Rempo!" he declared, sounding as though he expected applause, "the great fire spirit guardian! And there's no way _you're_ getting your grubby hands on the Book of Prophecy!"

"A spirit!" the monster laughed derisively another time. Tia was starting to back away. Whatever this bookmark boy was, he could obviously hold his own. She admired that, and respected him enough to leave the fighting to him... "What could you possibly do to me?"

"Not me!" said Rempo, then pointed his other shackled arm at Tia. "Her!"

Tia felt rooted to the ground at that point. "Uh—Fire boy," she whispered as he floated close to her, "I'm not exactly a swordsman. I mean, I was training to be one, _am _training to be one, sometimes, but..."

"What!?" Rempo gave her a once-over that ended with disapproval, then switched to resignation. "Well, I can't blame you. I didn't think it would choose someone so tiny!"

Tia was indignant. She was average height at least! "I'm sorry—why are we talking about being tiny?"

"I meant _young_," Rempo rolled his eyes. "Anyway, hurry up and pull out the sword! And before you say you didn't bring one, which I can see perfectly, open the book!"

Tia hated arguing, so she did as he asked and flipped the Book, which opened to a new page filled out with the picture of a golden sword. _Genesis_, it said on top. "Huh...?"

"Pull it out!" cried Rempo.

"You will give the Book to me," said the Moloch, lowering his head and preparing to charge, "and then you will die!"

"Pull it out!"

"A-All right!" Tia had no idea what he meant, but she slammed her palm into the book and managed to sink her fingers into the page. It was a hot sensation, almost like touching fire, she thought rationally amidst the screaming the rest of her was doing, and she felt her fingers clasp around the cold metal. Taking a firm grasp of the hilt, Tia drew Genesis from the Book and met the Moloch's horns with its golden blade. He had swung his head with so much force that though she deflected the attack, she flew into the monolith.

Her other arm wouldn't let go of the Book even as she slid to the ground, back aching. "How the—How did I do that?"

"Stop talking," Rempo yelled, flailing his heavy arms in the air, "Start fighting!"

"Right," she said, teeth almost chattering with fear, and though she had no idea how to fight what should have been only _myth_, something made her face the monster head on. Speaking of which—he was scraping his hooves against the grass. He was making divots in her perfect spot! She would ask him to please stop if he wasn't heading for her in an attempt to brutally murder her.

"Get out of the way!" The Moloch was coming.

"Hold on!" said Tia, bending her knees.

"Kid!" It was closing in.

"Hold on!"

"You idiot—"

Tia leapt out of the way. The Moloch's head made contact with the monolith with a loud thud. While his head spun—"Now! Now!" Rempo demanded—Tia thrust her sword into the monster's back.

"Hurry and code scan him before he dies!"

"What?"

"Slap the book against him!" Rempo saw the look in Tia's eyes and growled. "Just do it!"

Tia obeyed, dropping the sword and slamming an empty page of the Book into the monster. Heart still pulsating over her entire body, Tia fell limp to her knees before the Moloch.

"And _that's_ the power of the Book of Prophecy!" cheered Rempo, giving the Moloch a kick just to be sure.

"Book of...?" Tia fought to catch her breath. Surprisingly, the boy waited for her. "So this really is what he was looking for?"

Rempo gave her a look that told her she was an idiot, in his opinion. "What else?"

_She_ thought otherwise, if she could say so herself. She was handling it rather well considering all she wanted to do now was break into tears, but she spoke as clearly as she could. "When I opened it earlier, it hardly had any pages!"

"That's because you have to fill it in!"

If Tia had to draw Rempo's personality on paper, it would come out as an exclamation point. It was even affecting her—she wasn't the yelling type at all until she met him a few minutes ago. What was happening? She took a breath to regain her composure. "So I have to write in this Book? But—I don't have prophecies. Just bad dreams. Maybe you're looking for one of the seers in Fortune Teller Alley."

"No." Rempo glared at her. "Will you let me finish?"

"...Okay."

"It'll probably be better to show you. Open the book again."

Tia did so, but glanced over at her sword, now a rusted copper. "Hey, why isn't it gold anymore?"

"Stay with me here," said Rempo, rubbing his face with the free part of his arm. Tia was tempted to ask why the monster, drawing its last breath, had disappeared, but bit her tongue. "The sword's rusted now because it was the last of the Book's leftover from creation. Anyway, see the page you made?"

The page she had opened revealed a picture of the Moloch so realistic she thought it might attempt to jump out at her again. To the right were boxes of various shapes with different signs and colors on them. Tia was confused.

"That's the makeup of the creature. It's called a code map. If you take out some codes or add some, its properties will change."

Everything was going over her head in the face of having killed something, but Tia tried to please him. "Sorry, what? How is it going to change? Can I add something to bring it back to life?"

"No!" Rempo immediately cut her off. "No bringing things back to life."

"Oh. So can I add something to kill it immediately?"

"Nope. But you can weaken monsters! Not by too much, but every weakness is your strength!" Tia stared at him blankly. He waved a hand in her face. "Got it?"

Tia lowered her eyes to the Book and closed it. It was still watching her. Sometimes it blinked.

"Kid?"

"I'm going crazy, aren't I?" she asked. Maybe she was still sleeping and having that nightmare again, with some variation. Or she had napped too much and it was starting to affect her mind. Master Gustav did say train her mind, body and soul—napping didn't exactly hone her mind. Or Master Gustav really had hired a seer...

"Not this again," Rempo muttered. "You are not crazy. You know those nightmares you've been having?"

"How do you know I've been having nightmares? Only _I _know I've been having nightmares. This is still a nightmare, isn't it? That's why this Book—"

"Let me finish!" Rempo yelled, and for a second Tia could swear flames had gone out from his ears.

"All right," she said, too busy shrinking back to say so. "Sorry. Go ahead."

Rempo was worried. This was going to be more difficult than her other predecessors—they had all been at least past a second decade of existence. This girl looked like she still chased boys at every turn. Of all the roles they'd taken centuries ago, why did he think this would be the easiest?

* * *

"No."

"No?"

"_No_," Tia repeated for him, walking away from the fire spirit as quickly as she could. "I should've given this thing to that knight before he exploded and grew horns!"

Rempo gasped in horror. "You wouldn't! You're the Chosen One! People kill to be the Chosen One!"

"They do?"

"Uh—not really, but people would love to have your power! Not just _anyone _dreams about the Book that will herald the new world! You've gotta do this!"

Tia groaned and kept walking. "I'm not going to bring about the end of the world." She motioned to the short grass and the birds coincidentally flying overhead, perfect for the message she wanted to convey. "Maybe you've been stuck in the monolith for too long, but I happen to _love _this world. Especially that hill. I'm not going to _incinerate the earth_."

Floating beside her as she walked, Rempo's face twisted with aggravation. "Have you been listening to anything I've said? At all? You don't have a choice! It's going to end no matter what you do, because your world is filled with corruption! _Your _job is to decide what to keep and what to let go for the new world! How is that hard to understand?"

Tia didn't like yelling. Or any conflict, for that matter. She liked reasoning things out, and would cave to his request to prevent further argument if she didn't know that agreeing to what he and apparently, this Book, wanted would make the last moments of her life on the world just like the last ten minutes.

"Look," said Rempo, crossing his arms, "if you didn't want the Book, you'd have left it by the monolith and that dead monster it helped you survive."

Tia stopped in her tracks and looked down at the Book still clutched by her fingers. Why _hadn't _she let it go? It was easy in theory, but she couldn't part with it, even if she knew it would get rid of the fire spirit. Something was definitely wrong with her—she actually _curious _about the Book! And curious was hardly ever good. Curious meant trouble, and ruined _good day _potential. But her mouth was already moving on its own, like it was meant to ask the question.

"Okay. If I have all this power, can't I just stop the corruption _and _the world's end?"

Rempo sighed. "No! You think that hasn't been tried before? But there's never a single source of corruption. Who does that? It just comes out of different people. You can't exactly change every person in the world!"

"But—you just said I could change their _makeup_! Like to that butterfly we passed by. Though nothing happened with that flower I scanned..."

"Tia. It's Tia, right?" Tia nodded. Rempo spoke slowly as if it would help her understand. "You _can't._ Stop. The world from ending. Okay? Accept it. Accept the job." He would wag a finger at her if he could. "Or else!"

Tia's lip curled. "Or else what?"

Rempo shrugged. "You'll have to accept that you're going crazy. I've done this before, you know. Lots of times. There's no escaping it!" That was a lie. Of the many instances when they'd had to split up, this was the only Chosen One so far he had chosen to meet first. Now he wished he'd agreed to switch places with Mieli!

Tia stared hard at the back of the open book and met its eyes. It felt an awful lot like it was scrutinizing her. If it didn't think her 'worthy,' it shouldn't have chosen her! "...Can I at least get it to stop looking at me?"

The Book's eyes shifted to its shackled fire spirit, who sighed in exasperation. "Tia!"

"Sorry, sorry." Tia knew from experience that she had two ways of dealing with stressful situations—either sleep it off or try to laugh. There was also run away screaming, but Rempo already said that was impossible, and his flames felt real enough to be a threat. She took a deep breath. "How much time do I have?"

Rempo's glare eased. "A few months, tops."

Tia blew a gust of air in resignation. "Okay. I need some time to think this through." She at least had a day to think about it, right?

Wrong, she realized a second right before she could sit down against a tree lining the path and think. Peace and quiet was suddenly a faraway dream as she heard the noise of more armor.

"What's that?" asked Rempo, looking to his right, but Tia had disappeared. He sighed, looking behind them, but she hadn't run away screaming like he'd come to expect. Instead she was climbing one of the trees overlooking the path to the Sunny Hill. Why wasn't he surprised that she was extremely adept at an evasive maneuver like that?

Crouched between wiry branches, Tia peered down at the soldiers. Three silver-plated Imperial soldiers and two Imperial knights followed one man without too much mail encumbering his movements save his neck, boots, and sheathe. With a sword and shield strapped to his back, he walked with confidence that denoted his station.

"Shh," hissed Tia, beckoning to Rempo with a wave.

"Don't be chicken," laughed the fire spirit, watching them stop and discuss the armor the Moloch had left behind. "We can take 'em on! Remember, even if you're no good at swordfighting yourself, the _sword_ knows how to be wielded, and that's what gives you the skill!"

Tia glared at him. "Thank you for the vote of confidence. And that's great, but even so, I'm not about to take on a small group of soldiers like that. Especially not _that_ one." She pointed to the one in green with hardly any armor. "If he's not wearing a uniform, then he isn't a grunt. Which means he's got some skill."

"You're pretty observant for a kid," said Rempo, nodding in agreement. "You're probably right. And he's a human, anyway—hold up, why is a human travelling with monsters?"

Tia glanced at him, shuffling out of her position. It was starting to get uncomfortable, and she could spot a chance to escape while soldiers-who-were-possibly-monsters were distracted from planets away. "That Moloch had a human _shape_ until he burst out of his armor. I've never seen anything like it. And I'd be happy not to ever again, so..."

Rempo frowned. "He didn't give a lot of groups magic before..."

Climbing down the tree with only one arm but a lot of difficulty, Tia quirked an eyebrow at him. "What?"

"Nothing!" exclaimed Rempo. "Look, they're turning back. You know, they're probably scouting for the proper time and place to attack if you say they're from an opposing Empire. Shouldn't you tell your King? Or Emperor? Whichever?"

Hadn't she done enough already? Any more might spell trouble, so Tia shook her head. "It's a kingdom, and not really... You said I can't stop the world from ending, right? Why bother? I'm just going to go ahead," she dusted her knees off, "and scan more flowers."

"No way. You're going to at least try! Why did the book pick such a wimp for this job?" moaned Rempo.

Tia crossed her arms over the Book. "Go ahead and call me names. It's not anything I'm not used to."

Rempo wore a disbelieving expression as Tia began to head back for town. "I can't believe I have to convince you to help your own country!"

"It's not that I wouldn't help my own country," said Tia, "it's just that it's not exactly easy to get an audience with the Mayor, much less the King. I'm just peasant orphan Tia, running errands because I need money, especially for the seniors. They tip well. Is that so hard to believe?"

"It's not," Rempo answered easily, "but that doesn't mean you get to give up. Look, I'll even show you a neat trick when we get back to wherever you live. Sound like a good deal to you?"

_No_, Tia said in her mind, but it was obvious he wasn't going to let her get any rest from this end-of-the-world business if she didn't agree. "Okay. Yeah."

She staggered forward when Rempo thumped her on the back, laughing heartily. "Great! I knew there was some good in you!"

Tia sighed. It was a half hour back to town and she'd caught sight of her cottage when a blue-haired boy called out to her, the constant scowl on his face breaking for a brief smile. "Tia!"

"Rex," she greeted back, waving with her free hand.

Tia had two best friends: Rex the cynical jerk, and Fana the sickly optimist. Of their trio, she was the sleepy slacker, or lazy errand girl if she wasn't training at Master Gustav's. The three of them were orphans—though not at the same time. Tia was the first, she supposed. A little before she arrived in Rhoan Town, Rex lost his family to criminals, and Fana was orphaned two years later. For as long as the three of them had been friends, Rex always had some reason to be mad about something or somebody, usually the nobles in their castle town and the general system upon which their kingdom was founded.

The girls had found him a complete downer, at first, but eventually learned to brush it off and accept his ever present frustration—Tia knew that was what it was, and Fana understood that completely, in a different way. He had a good side, after all; it just seemed to aggravate him further when he realized it was showing. To keep the peace, they never called him out on it and kept quiet whenever he sewed dolls for the orphans Fana exchanged letters with when she was too sick or did Tia's errands whenever she actually worked hard enough to fall ill. At that moment, Tia had no idea how she was going to explain the tiny person flying next to her, but she would try.

"You're back early," said Rex, quirking an eyebrow and adjusting the sack slung over his shoulder.

"Not by choice," she muttered to herself. "Rex, this is Rempo. Rempo, this is Rex, my best friend."

Rempo tapped her on the shoulder. "Uh, Tia—"

Rex tilted his head from side to side, searching for whoever it was she referred to before coming up with nobody and giving her a weird look. Coming from him, it looked suspicious. "Who are you talking to?"

Tia glanced between him and Rempo. "Er...you?"

"Tia!" Rempo exclaimed, finally getting her attention. "Normal people can't see me—only you and really spiritual people. So you might sound a little crazy right now."

"I am going crazy," groaned Tia.

"Don't beat yourself up about it," Rex grinned. "We've known it for a while. Fana just asked me not to say anything."

"You're hilarious, Rex."

"Whatever," he shrugged, glaring at the ground as was his wont, and finally noticed the Book. "Hey, what's that?"

"You can see it?" she gasped.

"I told you," singsonged Rempo.

"Well, yeah," answered Rex, the _duh _simply unsaid, but they knew each other well enough to have heard it anyway. "Fana and Kamui are the ones who read, though, not you. Why the sudden interest in books?" He frowned. "Remember, there are _haves _and _have-nots_, and we're have-nots. Not much use studying."

"...Yeah," Tia lamely agreed. She knew better than to argue and prolong his rant.

Rempo scoffed. "Why are you agreeing with this jerk? Are you sure you're friends with him?"

Rex set the sack down and snatched the Book from her hands. He didn't seem to mind the Book blinking at him, its eyes rolling over to stare at Tia, and Rempo answered her question before she could wonder it to herself. "He doesn't see anything. It's a normal book to other people—meaning only you can see the Book looking at you."

"Why is that?" asked Tia.

Rex looked up. "Why is what? What's this?" He turned the cover and blinked, flipping past Sunny Hill and the rest of the pages that had cropped up between that and Town. He stopped at the Moloch. "What's this? One of the characters from that book you've been writing forever? You know you're never going to finish that thing if you're just lying around that hill all the time," he snorted.

Tia slapped his hand and retook the Book. "Yeah, it's a—that. A character concept. And didn't I tell you _not_ to read through my drafts?"

"But what else are best friends for?" He laughed in the face of Tia's glare and shrugged, motioning to his burden. "Anyway, I've gotta get these back to Gareth."

"All right. I'll just clean up at my place and head over to Fana's. Are you coming?"

"I was going to," Rex stretched his neck and shook his legs, looking confused as he did. "But...I suddenly feel kind of tired...I'll head home after this. Tell her and Kamui I said hi. Helen, too. See ya!"

Rempo watched him go with disapproval as Tia saluted him goodbye. "What's he got in those bags, and what's his problem?"

Tia shrugged. "Blacksmith stuff. He's an apprentice there. And...I don't know. Some people take being an orphan better than others, I guess."

Rempo accepted it well enough, and they made their way to her cottage. The fire spirit paused before it, and Tia had no idea if the look on his face was supposed to be disgust or awe.

"It's small," she said, taking him by the arm and helping him inside as he floated, "but it's home."

"Uh—yeah, sure!" Rempo nodded, schooling his features into a grin that didn't betray the familiarity. It was well-lit with a single bed in a corner, a cozy-looking hearth across the door, and tables all around. Bits of paper stuck out from and above her writing desk next to the bed—what were these? Letters? Some of them were, and some of them were drafts for a story about some girl fighting dragons—and the table at the center of the room was covered with a patched up cloth and a vase filled with flowers a few days old. Quaint, but homey. "But you're this young and you've already moved away from your parents?"

"I'm seventeen," said Tia, setting the Book down on her table and sighing as Rempo ignored her requests to stop looking through her writing desk. "And not really. I just don't have any parents."

"Sure you do," Rempo laughed, then squinted at her. "Do you mean they've passed away? ...Sorry."

"Maybe," she said absentmindedly, going through her drawers for something. "I don't know."

Rempo lay down on the pieces of paper and pencils scattered over her desk. He'd missed this. "Y'know, you're even more confusing than the Book!"

"What I mean is," said Tia, as though reading from a dictionary and not at all telling the story of her life as she pulled out leather straps and some small pieces of metal, "seven years ago, I was found on Sunny Hill. I don't remember anything before then, but they figured my parents were casualties from the war. There was supposed to be a peace treaty or something, but Waisen turned coat and attacked. And that was as far as they got me. Supposedly."

"Well...okay." Rempo sighed. The last One had been an orphan, too, but it wasn't all bad. From their experience, orphans were slightly less helpless than the usual Chosen One. Tia hadn't shown that quality yet, but he was waiting. And m_an_, was he bad at waiting. "It'll be easier, then."

Tia took a seat in front of the wilting flowers and muttered something at the Book, which blinked at the leather. "What will?"

"It's harder to accept the world ending and all that when you have family," explained Rempo. "You can always write 'em into the new world, but you still have to go through that whole incinerating part..."

Tia set the leather straps into the metal—they were buckles, Rempo realized—and watched him oddly. "You sound like you enjoy that part."

"I don't!" Rempo paused, then smiled sheepishly. "Well, the other spirits don't. Anyway, are we done here? Have you washed up yet?"

"Hold on a minute, _please_," sighed Tia. She hurriedly tied the leather pieces around the raised bands across the rim of the Book so that, lifting the book with its fore edge up, she could close the straps and sling them over her shoulders like a makeshift backpack.

Rempo gaped at the Book's new look. "What are you doing!?"

"Calm down," chuckled Tia, standing up and turning her back to show him the convenience. She could feel the other eye blinking behind her, but she would have to get used to that. Once she finished shivering, anyway. "I don't want to have to lug it around on one arm all the time."

The Book stared back at Rempo with approval. The fire spirit guardian clapped his bound arms and nodded. "Ooh, right! That _does_ make fighting hard!"

"...I meant when I was walking, but all right."

"So!" Rempo leapt over to the door. "To the Mayor? Or King?"

"To _Fana_," Tia corrected. "She's my best friend too, but she's always been sick, so we just visit her at home." Patting the leather straps on her shoulder and opening the door, she waited for Rempo to fly out before locking it in. "Oh! Argh!" she groaned, her palm painfully meeting her bangs and forehead.

Rempo spun in the air. "What? What now?"

"Her flowers—I left them at Sunny Hill!" Tia looked to the exit of town as if that would take her back. When it didn't, she grumbled. "That stupid Moloch—he probably crushed them."

"You _know_," Rempo grinned, eyebrows bouncing, "if you were powerful enough, you could use magic to take yourself to that hill instead of walking around everywhere."

Looking at the long stretch of road ahead of them before she could get into the main areas of town, Tia decided that sounded like a very good idea, indeed. "I can do that?"

"Sure!" Rempo answered cheerily, always glad to hear some enthusiasm from this new Chosen One, who was probably the most reluctant one he'd ever met. "But not now. Because you're still weak. Remember! The Book takes up the energy of whoever holds it. You're the Chosen One, so your body'll adjust to it eventually, but you're still a wimp now."

"Thanks." Tia rolled her eyes and headed for the central street. It wasn't actually a street as much as a square—or octagon, if she wanted to be a stickler for details like the delivery girl she had to be sometimes—but either way, it was a marketplace and one of the busiest areas in town. The structures around it were clothing boutiques and little restaurants which sold some of their items in the main square.

There was a stall for everything in the marketplace: plants, ores, bread, meat, accessories, hats, armor and weapons, and even peculiar things like hokey windchimes or long strings of beads that were supposed to serve as crystal balls if placed before a doorway, when one "desired to see into the winding whorls of her future." Tia took a step farther from that one; besides, it was close to Fortune Teller Alley, named for its many seers and fortune tellers. More like _frauds_, Rex would spit, and he knew because he lived and worked along that road, where the smithy was also located.

Tia's nose had learned to close itself off naturally for the variety of items in the market, which could have been a town in itself with the number of twists and turns in which a foreigner could easily lose himself. That spring morning, suddenly ironic because of the whole end of the world bit, the stalls were canopied in soft, cool pastels that danced on the ground with sunlight. It would have been a breeze to avoid the clutter—worse than normal today, for some reason—and visit Fana's house overlooking the central square, but Tia needed to buy flowers.

Stopping at a stand stocked with wondrous bouquets some ways from a familiar stall, Tia stuck a hand into the inner pocket Rex had sewn into her coat to avoid pickpockets. She was so sure she had some money left over from picking weeds for the sweet old ladies at Seasoned Row, but these were so expensive...

Rempo huffed impatiently and took a seat on her shoulder. "Are you worrying about what to buy? Just scan the flower you want and pull it out of the Book! Better yet, why not just use the one you got a while ago?"

Tia flicked Rempo off with her knuckles to protect her ears. "Because," she said, "Fana likes _these_ flowers." It was called the Bug Tree though it was only a flower with a tall stalk and yellow petals. When they had a lot of time to spend with each other, she, Fana and Rex loved sipping the nectar from its stem. Sometimes Kamui joined, too. Pointing to the flower, Tia made a face at the fire spirit, who looked indignant.

"Hmph! Then scan the flower already."

Tia unslung the Book and, checking to make sure the owner was distracted by another customer to the side, scanned the flower. "Hey—"

"Is that Tia?" she heard a displeased murmur behind her. Tia shut the Book and pretended to look at other flowers, enough to feign normally walking away. Maybe if she did it slowly, they wouldn't notice it was her.

"It is! _Little Orphan Tia_," a girl sang behind her. She didn't know why she bothered, given the orange hair and pink coat.

"You're looking glum as usual," agreed a whiny male voice.

Tia tried not to sigh visibly before reluctantly whirling. "Hey, guys," she plastered a smile on her face. She knew that stall two intersections back looked familiar—it was Romaioni's, where he sold collectibles and bizarre-looking armor and weapons. She had no idea where he got them, and neither did Gareth, the town blacksmith. They didn't exactly like each other. His younger sister Francesca was their age, but she was even worse, in Tia's opinion. She and Rex called them the "twins" because they were so alike with their red hair, freckles, blue eyes, and the haughty huff they liked to give that the years didn't matter. They lived on the wealthier side of town much closer to Franelle Castle, and it was rumoured that heard they had bedposts made of gold. Naturally, Rex hated them with a passion. "How's the shop?"

"Excellent," said Romaioni, grinning proudly.

"Not that you could afford it," scoffed Francesca, fiddling with her braids as she stared Tia down.

"Yep," Tia continued to smile, voice higher-pitched as always when dealing with the twins. "I remember. You happen to remind me every day."

Romaioni only quirked an eyebrow at the remark and lowered his eyes to the item in her hands. "My, what an interesting book. I never knew you could read—or draw would be the more likely activity, I suppose. I assumed art was simply beyond you."

Tia forced a laugh. "Ha! Well, you know what they say..."

"The question is," Francesca interrupted, "How did you get your hands on that book? It looks expensive."

"Wait, sister," Romaioni gave Francesca a small shove to get her to quiet down. He cocked his head at Tia. "What do they say?"

"Hmm?" Tia blinked and feigned stupidity when Romaioni glared. That usually derailed the insults well enough.

Floating between them, Rempo was less than happy to watch the exchange. "What in the...? Are you going to take all this abuse!?"

Tia shrugged. She couldn't exactly reply, or the twins would find another thing to tease her about. She deflected most of their jabs about her financial situation easily, but she didn't want it getting to her clients that she was crazy.

"Let me show you something _really_ good," Rempo growled, tapping the Book with a shackle. "Code scan these two jokers in the face!"

Tia shook her head and couldn't help the snort. "I can't do _that_."

"Can't do what?" asked Romaioni, crossing his arms suspiciously.

"Can't afford items in the shop, of course!" laughed Francesca, covering her mouth with a hand as she cackled.

Tia wanted to grab the curl of her bangs and hack it off with her copper sword so it would end up flippy like Romaioni's, but she'd had seven years enough of practice for moments like this to be able to retain her self control. As she shot Rempo an uneasy smile, hoping it would communicate how she couldn't possibly slap someone's face with a Book, all she said was, "Of course."

"They won't notice! I promise!" insisted Rempo, equally tempted to swing his shackles at the two strangers. "Just do it already!"

"Anyway," said Romaioni, looking down at Tia with a wrinkle of his nose, "I've got a celebration to prepare for, so, carry on."

Francesca giggled. "Goodbye, peasant!" she waved, then picked up her dress to scurry after her brother.

Tia considered herself a pretty relaxed girl—she wasn't the sleepy slacker for nothing—but those two always had her agreeing with Rex about the rich and the nobility, and that made her even angrier. "Hey, guys?" she coughed to temper her enraged inflection as she caught up with them. "Wait up."

"Ugh," Francesca sighed. "What?"

At least, that was what Francesca would have said if Tia hadn't wielded the open Book with one hand and slammed it in her face right as she turned around! It was as if time had slowed down as the girl's head jerked to the left from the impact, cheek shuddering and mouth open with shock to give Tia the most pleasure possible from the activity. For a moment Tia's chest spiked with fear—what if Rempo was wrong and they were aware of it?—but it dissipated soon enough when Francesca stopped speaking and blinked. She looked like Tia had simply made her forget something and she was trying to remember instead of Tia trying to knock her teeth out.

Tia couldn't hold down her laughter. "Ha!" she cried before quickly covering her mouth. If only Rex were here to see this! And Fana would have laughed, too, even if she didn't know the twins, who both looked annoyed and confused. Or she would have scolded them, but in the joy of the moment she likely wouldn't have cared.

"What?" asked Francesca, uninterrupted this time. "What do you want?"

Romaioni scowled. "You're wasting our time."

"Wait!" Tia wiped the grin from her mouth with a hand and hooked a finger on his sleeve. Romaioni whirled, eyes widened at her expectantly.

"Wha—" _Slam_! "What? What is it?"

Since her seven-year self-control had gone down the drain, Tia did nothing to stop her smile from reaching both ears. "I...uh. I like your hat."

Romaioni blinked, hand flying to adjust his hat. Tia didn't notice, but his ears were slightly pink. "Well," he coughed, eyes averting, "thank you. I suppose even peasants can have taste."

Francesca gaped at him. "Brother!"

Romaioni remembered his sister and recovered easily with a glare at Tia. "_Not _that you'll ever be able to afford it."

"Yeah," Tia looked down at the closed Book in her hand. It glared in the direction of the twins, but she felt only mirth, and attempted to subdue it—at least on her face. It would be too weird for them if she complimented them too much instead of just staying out of their way. "Never."

"Er. Goodbye, then," said Romaioni, turning up his nose, "little orphan Tia."

With a huff in agreement from Francesca, the twins dove back into the crowd. Tia waved at them, uncharacteristically cheerful, and faced Rempo with a burst of laughter. "That was _hilarious_!" she guffawed. "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

Rempo had been laughing for the past few minutes himself and had only regained composure then. "How could I? Between the whining and the refusing and the chickening out..."

"I get it," said Tia dismissively, and turned to the Book panel with genuine interest, though perhaps not the kind Rempo would have liked. She was starting to get used to the Book's staring, oddly enough. "What else can I do with this Prophecy Book?"

"It's the Book of Prophecy," Rempo corrected. "You don't shorten it. Anyway, we better do this somewhere more secluded. People _will_ see you pulling something out of thin air!" Mumbling about demanding fire spirits, Tia dodged out of the central square and slipped into the space between Fana's house and Kamui's. "All right! Turn to the page of the flower you scanned earlier. Aaand...get the flower! Ya know, like you did the sword!"

"Got it," said Tia, and watched her hand sink into the page once more. Now, instead of the heat of the forge, she felt blades of grass tickle her wrist as she found the flower's stem and picked it from the Book. Tia smoothed her fingers along the flower's petals. She had never seen a flower as vivid as this. The one from the stall hadn't even been this symmetrical or perfect or—or _real_! It was the only way she could describe it. "This is..."

Tucked in her elbow, the Book blinked appreciatively at the flower while Rempo grinned proudly, as though he had recreated each detail himself. "That's because the concept of the flower is what the Book gets, so what you take out from the Book is pure and perfect! Unmarred by the world. Until you take it out, anyway."

"Wow," Tia glanced at the fire spirit. "That was almost poetic, Rempo."

"Eh," Rempo shrugged, and kept to himself that Ur had given him a much wordier explanation millennia ago and that this was the watered down version. "So! You can make an entire bouquet of those. You can fill up the _world _with 'em!"

"Really? No way!"

Though he was tempted to be carried away by the excited glimmer he saw in her eyes for the first time, Rempo shook his head. "Hah, actually, no way. You'll run out of energy."

"Huh?"

"You can do it with any item. Even food! But even if you eat that food, taking too much too soon from the Book without letting yourself recover is going to sap your strength—and more than just your energy, you'll be taking from your life power. Or I think some Chosen Ones called it creation power."

Tia was starting to get lost again, or if she were to be honest, slightly uninterested in the details. "Wait. How is that different from my energy?"

"How do I explain this..." Rempo clicked his tongue, tapping his knee with a shackle. "Ah! I told you the Book takes up your energy, right? Well, what I meant was it takes up your creation power. You only have a little right now because you just got the Book, but as we get closer to the end of the world, don't worry! You'll get more and more powerful and you'll be able to make more stuff without getting as tired."

"What happens if I make too much too soon, like you said?"

Rempo looked thoughtful. "You'll probably just get really tired and need to recover. Or maybe you'll die and the Book will have to choose a new One! I don't know, it's never happened before."

"_Don't worry_, right," Tia muttered. "Okay, I'll avoid that. But can I still slap people?"

Rempo grinned toothily. "As hard as you can!"

"All right!" Tia grinned. She was never this animated—Rempo was more contagious than she thought. Well, she still didn't like this end-of-the-world business, but she could tell the blinking Book would have its moments. Tia could stay curious for a little while longer.

Some minutes later, with a small but beautiful bouquet of Bug Trees in hand, she knocked on Fana's door.


	2. Caught

I was supposed to update earlier, but was distracted by Fire Emblem: Awakening. Now _that _is Shipper's Galore, people. I didn't like how they shove some couples in your face (Chrom/Sumia), but it's easy enough to ignore when I love every other pairing with the Female Avatar just as much. Haha! The only reason I took Chrom from Sumia was to have Super Morgan. Romance-wise, I love everyone equally. Haha!

Anyway. I'm not sure how I felt about this chapter. I'm very fickle, so through some parts I just forced myself to write. I felt that a lot of parts were too bare for this, but I hadn't the heart or brain power to change them because I've been excessively sleepy of late. Also, you'll notice I switched around the order of some of the game's events and kept others. Changed the script a bit too, so it's not too faithful a 'novelization,' just fyi. Do tell what you think! And thank you, **To Be**'s first follower! You made my day yesterday. Haha!

At any rate! I hope you enjoy. All weird things will be explained in time.

edit on 04/26/2013: Gah! Forgot to put dividers on events. Sorry about that. Fixed!

* * *

**To Be**

**2: Caught**

_A pair of maroon eyes rose above a row of beaded accessories and narrowed._

_ "They'll be easy," whispered the boy, nose poking into the fake stones as he jerked his head in the direction of the flower stall. "Even for you, Tia."_

_"I don't know, Rex," said the girl, brown eyes blinking fearfully. "I almost got caught last time. It was a good thing Duran was there—"_

_Rex glowered at the name. "Yeah, we're lucky Duran was chicken enough to run to his dad and let us get away. _He_ almost got you caught!"_

_"Master Gustav's okay," Tia mumbled. "He tried giving me Duran's bed before. And he's nice when I'm not late to the training hall..."_

_Rex rolled his eyes. "I don't get how you can stand the snobs there."_

_"Because Master Gustav tried to help me," Tia frowned, balling her fists—as gutsy as she would ever be in years to come. "If he wants me to train with swords, I'll do it. But he gets mad when I go to the hill..."_

_"Yeah, I don't know why you go there either, since—" Rex paused and flailed his arms to emphasize an unknown point. "They're getting away! Come on, Tia! Jeez, you're slow!" He shoved her out of the unmanned shop._

_"But—!" Tia looked ahead in time to bump into another boy in an orange hat too big for his head. They fell to the dirt in a tangled heap, and the boy gave a whiny, "_Ow_!"_

_"Sorry!" exclaimed Tia, unlatching herself from him and offering him a hand. "Are you okay?"_

_"_No_!"_ _On his knees, the boy's glare softened when he looked upon her. "I-I mean, yes," he took her hand and stood up, dusting himself off in an attempt to reclaim his dignity. "I'm—"_

_"Romaioni!" A woman scurried over to the boy with a younger daughter in tow. Snatching his wrist, she scolded, "I told you not to run off! And what did I say about..." Her eyes swept disdainfully over Tia's clothes and hair dishevelled from the fall, "...associating with the rabble? Come!"_

_"Bye," Tia smiled, not quite understanding what the woman had meant yet. The boy turned as red as his hair and fled after his mother._

_"Tia!" Rex berated from the accessory stall, "What are you doing!?"_

_Tia gasped and looked to the left. They were still there—the mother, the father, and their daughter, whose smile brightened her pallid features. Her parents had quite the grip on her, but she hardly seemed to mind. They had been standing at the flower stall for a few minutes already. Tiptoeing close to the shop, she pretended to inspect a bouquet of Pagoda blossoms. _

_"Hi," said the girl._

_Tia's eyes darted to the speaker first, then her head followed. Uh-oh. Rex' instructions were to not be noticed. "Er...hi?"_

_The little girl, whose parents had gone to buy her the flowers she had picked out, smiled even wider. "I'm Fana."_

_"I'm Tia," she replied, unable to help but mirror the pale girl's pleasant smile, "it's nice to meet you, Fana."_

_A ways from them, Rex smacked a palm over his face._

_"Fana, here are your flowers—oh, who's this?" asked her father, rounding the stall's corner to see his ten-year-old conversing with a familiar child. "Ah, you must be..."_

_"Tia," said Tia, freezing when Fana held her arm as though they were friends already. Any attempt to shake her off was met with a tight grip. Then again, she wasn't exactly trying._

_"Yes, yes, I remember," said the father, smiling. "Have you found your parents, Tia?"_

_Tia shook her head. "I don't have parents."_

_"Byron—ah," Fana's mother paused, eyes landing on Tia. In particular, the hold her daughter had on the poor girl. "Hello there. Have you found your parents?"_

_"No," Tia repeated, growing slightly irritated at the question._

_The parents exchanged worried glances. Byron spoke, "Lena, Fana was asking if Tia might come over for lunch today."_

_Fana gasped loudly, though her words were light as a whisper. "May she, mama? Could she, please?"_

_Tia glanced between Fana, her parents, and the purse between the mother's fingertips. Though she caught the girl's line of sight easily, __Lena simply chuckled. "Only if Tia would like to."_

_Unnerved by the family's expectant smiles, Tia glanced over her shoulder for help—only to see Rex glaring at them. But it seemed Fana's parents had followed her gaze, for Byron said, "...I had no idea. What was..."_

_Lena nudged her husband, taking a Bug Tree from Fana's bouquet and offering it to Tia, clasping it between her hands. "Why don't you ask Rex if he'd like to come along? Then we can all go to lunch together, if you'd like."_

Every day since Fana's parents had found them in the market, the two had eaten lunch with her family. They invited them over all the time, of course, and they had grown on them so much that Lena asked Tia and Rex if they wished to be adopted, but Rex refused and Tia, though extremely open to the idea, could not bear the thought of parting with her shack by the road. So they had settled for daily meals—not that the two mourned any less when Lena died of heartbreak the year Byron left one day and never returned, and Rex grew bitter as ever.

Tia closed the door behind her and climbed the stairs to the second floor, where a grandmother waited with a man and a young woman who could have passed off as a couple. Unfortunately, Kamui, a writer who had girls tripping over him in the street most of the time, was so circumspect regarding his feelings and oblivious to Fana's that Rex was almost always tempted to blurt them out for the two. Tia could only shake her head watching them skirt around their own attraction to each other every day.

The old woman was Byron's mother, Helen, who had taken Fana as her ward when Lena passed away. She was as kind and gracious as her son and daughter-in-law despite their wealth, and was happy whenever her granddaughter's friends came by. She was just as curious about their refusal to be adopted, but never forced the issue. "Good morning, Tia," she said, "Dear, where is Rex?"

"Rex sends his undying love, but he won't be able to make it today. And good morning," she greeted. "Sorry I'm late."

"On the contrary," said Kamui, waving her over and motioning to the food prepared on the table, "you're rather early today, Tia."

"Yes," smiled Fana. Tia was glad to see she felt well enough to sit on the chair instead of lie in bed that morning. "Something must have come up for you to arrive so soon."

Fana knew Tia too well for the girl to even bother protesting. Despite the malady which rendered her bedridden, Tia had always felt as if Fana knew more of the world than she did. She was certainly the first to understand Rex better, and even physically she looked more mature than either of them, though Tia assumed they were the same age.

"Yeah, something did come up," answered Tia, eyes momentarily darting to Rempo inspecting the two-bed room, and whipped out the bouquet from behind her back. "But look what I managed to get."

"They're beautiful," Fana gasped, taking them in her arms and thumbing at every petal, even more mesmerized than Tia. Tia never cared much for flowers—she liked fruits and things she could sink her teeth into—but over the years, Fana's love for them allowed her an appreciation for the things. Kamui, too, said all flowers inherently meant something, but Tia didn't look at other flowers if Fana didn't especially favor them.

Fana willed herself to stand, head turning to search for one of the many vases Tia and Rex had made during their very brief stint in pottery-making, but fell back to her seat, breathing heavily. Helen, watching the exchange with a smile, patted her granddaughter's shoulder and filled a vase with water herself. When that was finished, she asked Tia, "What was it then, dear? What came up?"

Tia was hungrier than she thought—it must have been the flower-picking from the Book—and dug into her meal with gusto. She heard the question in her mind only when she registered Kamui's shock and Fana's amusement, and glanced guiltily down at the Book.

"What is that?" asked Kamui.

"O-Oh," Tia smoothed a hand underneath one of the Book's eyes, which gazed fondly at Fana, "it's a, uh, that. A drawing Book."

Fana went into a coughing fit, but recovered with a bright smile. "You're drawing again? That's wonderful, Tia. May I see it?"

"Okay," shrugged Tia, and turned pages to find the orange flower she had scanned earlier. The Moloch was the last thing she wanted Fana to see.

"You've improved so much, dear!" said Helen, tracing a finger over the 'sketch.'

"I remember when you used to draw maps of those four imaginary kingdoms," giggled Fana. "I'm sure you can draw them with so much more detail now, Tia. Have you been practicing?"

"Yeah, _practicing_," snorted Rempo.

Tia refrained from glaring at him just in case they thought she was giving an eyeroll instead. "Not really. I haven't had time, but I just...saw this flower this morning and had to draw it."

"Amazing," remarked Fana, then shyly turned to the green-haired writer. "Do you know what it means, Kamui?"

"Y-Yes." Kamui was a novelist who came to Rhoan Town four years after Tia. He spoke only vaguely of his origins, though the townspeople so loved his stories that he had gotten away with not telling years ago. He was Fana's neighbor, too, and began joining them for lunch three weeks later when Rex invited him—out of pity for Fana, who had the silliest crush on the man. Of course, she never uttered it to her friends, but they knew her well enough, too. "And what you said isn't a surprise, Tia. This is a Blazera, which means passion. It must have inspired you greatly." He glanced longingly at Fana as he finished.

Tia would have rolled her eyes in Rex' place then, but something was being scribbled onto the Book beneath the picture of the Blazera. _Passion_, it said. Shutting the Book in a panic, she looked up to Rempo. "What just happened?"

"I guess that information we got from this green guy was approved by the Book of Prophecy," said Rempo, who grinned. "Watch out or they'll start to agree that you're crazy!"

Tia's eyes slowly looked back to her companions, who watched her actions and nodding with confusion. "Sorry," she gave them a sheepish smile. "I just remembered when I was outside—drawing, like I said—I saw Imperial troops marching in Grana. Not a whole army—maybe a scouting force of five or six. And Grana is already Kaleilan territory, right?"

Kamui nearly knocked his chair over getting to his feet. "Waisen troops?" he repeated, paling. "Near Rhoan?"

Tia nodded slowly. "Are you all right?"

"W-Well, no!" said Kamui, tightly gripping the edge of his tunic, but eased at the sight of Fana's worried expression. Taking his seat again, he apologized. "I'm sorry. It's just—the thought of war—"

Fana looked to Tia. "Is it true? We're going to war?"

"Y-You know what they've said about the Prince lately," Kamui answered for her. "The stalemate over the past year is over and he's taken over command of the army..."

"Wait," said Tia, sitting up straight. "Is the prince tall and brown-haired?"

"No," answered Kamui. "He has Waisen Imperial blood. His hair is—rather, I've heard that his hair is...is likely some light shade of purple or violet."

"Oh. Well, I wouldn't expect him to be part of the scouting group, I guess."

"This is terrible news," Helen murmured. "It must reach the Mayor—surely he'll relay it to the King."

Fana nodded. "You should tell him, Tia..."

"Yeah!" Rempo grinned. "You should!"

Commending herself for holding back another glare, Tia shook her head at the table. "But how can I get an audience with the Mayor? He's the busiest man in town, and probably surrounded by nobles."

"Nonsense," smiled Helen. "I'm sure he would be happy to see you."

"Yeah, _duh_," Rempo made a face. "You're the Chosen One!"

Batting Rempo away and saying it was a fly, Tia looked curiously at Helen. "Why would he be glad to see _me_?"

"Because he found you on that hill, of course!" said Helen. "He'll be happy to see you've grown. I suppose after Gustav offered to care for you, what with the war all those years back, and the death toll, you never saw him again..."

"Oh...I had no idea. Well—"

"The sooner you go, Tia," Kamui reminded her, clearly trying to still his own nerves, "the faster the Mayor can inform the King and fortify the border."

"You seem to care about these people," said Rempo, wishing he could tap his chin to prove a point and further irritate Tia. "If you do, you'll want to protect them and keep them alive, right? So you _have _to tell the King!"

Tia hated preaching—Rempo's most of all these past few hours—but sighed. "All right. Okay."

* * *

Barely able to finish her lunch for Kamui's panic, Tia half-heartedly trudged outside Fana's house. She didn't notice the top hat on a nearly-bald head hidden behind the small row of shrubs by the gate as she left and made her way to the Mayor's house. Mayor Georg was a long-lived Elf, the first and still incumbent mayor of Rhoan Town, which was supposed to be named after one of King Xenonbart's great-great-and-so-on grandmothers. In the past few years, he had handled the war and counselled the King as best he could, but Elves were known for their peaceful ways in the forest and, according to Rex, "aren't made for human problems like ours. In fact, it's his fault..."

Needless to say, Rex didn't quite believe in the bargaining power of Elves, either, especially when it involved a land-hungry Empire like Waisen. Still, Tia reluctantly agreed, it was probably better that the Mayor knew of the scouts, just in case they were planning a full-scale war anytime soon. A war away from the castle town was better than an invasion, she surmised—or at least that was what Rempo was trying to drill in her head. She just wished she wasn't the one who had to jump through hoops just to get the news delivered.

"Hey, I didn't know your Mayor was a girl," Rempo remarked.

Tia stopped at the park past the market on the way to the higher quarter between Franelle castle and the town a. Named Central Park for its location, in its center was a grand circular fountain with a great statue of King Xenonbart by the entrance, made to celebrate the "joy of life and the glory of the King" or some such. It was better known to citizens as the most romantic spot in town. The fountain and the benches surrounding the small park were almost always smothered with couples, which Rex—obviously—hated. Always got in his way when he was trying to deliver new swords to the castle, he said. Tia didn't really mind it, though she preferred the peace of her Sunny Hill to the flirting and giggles of the park.

"He isn't."

"Yeah? Isn't that an Elf, though?" Rempo swung his arms and flew over to a blond girl wearing a wreath of leaves and oddly revealing clothing. The braids in her flowered hair were intricate and confusing, but what drew attention to her the most were her long, pointed ears.

"I guess she is," Tia blinked. Despite the Mayor's heritage, Elves still rarely left their forests. "Should I slap her?"

Rempo grumbled. "Only if you want to. I don't like Elves much."

"Why not?" asked Tia, heading in the girl's direction. She was beautiful, like a child of the forest indeed. But— "Oh. I get it."

But her voice was not at all like the pealing of bells, as Tia had expected. It was high-pitched, and might be soft on a better occasion, but as it was, the girl nagged and scoffed and huffed in a manner that would have made Rex definitely want to slap her, and not with the Book. The girl was arguing with a soldier, demanding something and reminding Tia very much of Francesca. Shaking her head, Tia decided to walk past her and kept the Book slung over her shoulders. "Tsk tsk," Tia muttered as she went. "Not a good idea..."

"That's because you're chicken," Rempo reminded.

"Hey," Tia frowned. "I'm going to the Mayor's, aren't I?"

The Elf girl's complaints stopped for a moment as she looked in the direction of the orange-haired child who had passed her. "Human girl!" she called out.

Tia hoped to the heavens—or to the Book—that it wasn't her. "I'm going to keep walking, just in case."

"I'm all for that plan," Rempo laughed. "She looks like a pain."

Ignored by the couples surrounding them and dismissing the soldier—who had already gone once her attention left him, to his fortune—the Elf repeated, "You there! In the pink coat!"

Tia resisted the urge to rub a hand all over her face in frustration. Turning around with the usual smile she gave the twins, she said, "Hi. I mean—good morning." She wondered if she should, and added anyway, "Milady." It was work not to look at the Elf's ears. They were just so pointy!

"Well," said the Elf, curling her lip and flipping back her long hair, "you're at least respectful, unlike those soldiers. What lackluster training they must have if they have no respect for Elves!"

Tia nodded with feigned comprehension. "Oh, yes. That does sound like a pain."

"Yes she is," Rempo chortled, prompting a grin from Tia, whose mirth the Elf noticed before she could swipe it away.

"Is there something humorous in my manner, girl?"

Rempo stuck out his tongue. "Who spit in her salad?"

"No—not at all," Tia laughed uneasily. She didn't meet many pretty girls besides Fana, but she would rather not argue with them, either, like soldiers. It could end only in trouble. "Milady. It's just that I—haven't seen many Elves. The only Elf I know of is Mayor Georg."

Through her half-lidded eyes, the Elf gave Tia a once-over. "I'm not familiar with your type of humor, but very well," she said, then gave a frighteningly fake laugh. Tia cringed. "Now," said the Elf, finished, "take me to my father."

Tia paused and stared at the girl, slowly putting the pieces together. The Mayor was old, and this girl spoke like she was old. Plus they were Elves. "I didn't know the Mayor had a daughter."

The girl scoffed. "I wouldn't expect him to proclaim it to _all _of this odd town!"

"Ah—you're right, of course," said Tia, sighing.

The Elf gave her an odd look, but seemed pleased enough that the human girl agreed quickly. "What is your name?"

"Tia," she answered, giving a bad curtsy, and remembered, "Milady."

Rempo snorted and received a glare. Tia had no idea what customs Elves might have! But if this nagging daughter could get the Mayor's ear, she had to try and please her. Not to mention get out of her way as quickly as possible. Overbearing personalities and Tia's simple own just clashed. She could bear Rex' only because they had been best friends forever with Fana.

"My name is Sylphy. I prefer it to milady, though your respect is valued amidst the crass workings of the rest of your society.

"Thank you," said Tia, blankly, "what a great compliment."

Sylphy smiled. "I thought it was, given your humanity. Now," she crossed her arms, "take me to my father!"

Tia took a deep breath. "Okay. Please follow me." She continued on her way past the park and close to where the nobility lived alongside the Mayor. Mayor Georg lived just as lavishly, she'd heard, upon the insistence of King Xenonbart and his forefathers.

"What is that?" asked Sylphy not four steps later, eyes on Tia's back. "What a hideous thing."

"This stupid...!" Rempo growled, "Just tell her it's a human thing. Arrogant Elf! I don't know why they're kept every single time!"

Tia could only nod in agreement. "It's a human thing."

Sylphy turned up her nose. "Oh. Then it's no wonder."

That shut her up—for about half a minute on the cobblestone path, nobles haughtily quirking an eyebrow at the clearly-peasant girl accompanying an Elf high above her station, though Sylphy ignored them just as well. She was too caught up in a tirade about the human things she saw about town that were truly crass—like the marketplace, or haggling, or their difficult structures, or the way they spoke and dressed, or—though Tia stopped listening, tuning in every so often when Sylphy would say that Tia seemed respectful, so she _must take care not to be this way, at least not as much as the others, since she can't help her humanity_. And Tia would say, _not at all_, and tuned out again until the next time, or until they finally reached the Mayor's property.

"Leave," said the soldier standing by the gate, "the Mayor is busy."

"It's kind of urgent," Tia told him.

"Mayor Georg isn't here at the moment," the soldier insisted.

"We can wait," so did Tia. She just needed to get the message across, then she could finally rest. Or go to Master Gustav's, if her body was up to it. Not really.

Visor lifted, the soldier looked very much like he wanted to arrest Tia and her impatient companion for loitering, but was unable to when Sylphy spoke. "The Mayor is my _father_!" she scoffed, making Tia step aside for her. "Let us in at once."

"Look, lady," he said, staring at her ears, "unless you have proof, I cannot let you into the manor. Now leave."

Sylphy looked about to explode with another rant when she heard the only footsteps in town as light as hers. Turning her head, she saw the gray-haired man in a fancy red coat and gasped. "Father!"

Looking up from clumps of paper gathered in his hands as a trail of assistants followed him, the Mayor blinked, calmly standing in place, though his voice betrayed his incredulity. "Sylphy!? What are you doing here?"

Sylphy sighed, looking to Tia as though the girl was supposed to understand how taxing the question was to hear. "I came here to convince you to come home! We have heard that this kingdom is on the brink of war with that terrible Empire—come home, Father. We'll be safe in the forest."

Tia wanted to speak up and say, Not _really, the world's going to end_, but only to ruin their father-daughter moment. So even Mayor Georg was parent to a child. She often wondered what her own parents were thinking trying to send her to Rhoan, if they were Waisen—or trying to get away from Rhoan, if they were Kaleilan, though it hardly mattered since they ended up dead either way. She stepped off this train of thought when she saw Sylphy's finger pointed at her.

Apparently, Georg had asked how she found him, and Sylphy had said, in a nasty, hasty impression by Rempo, "With some difficulty. These filthy humans wouldn't help me until this child did!"

Now Sylphy added, lowering her finger, "Dia, wasn't it?"

Tia considered correcting her, weighing the positives and negatives. "...Yes."

"Ah," Georg turned to her, glasses glinting in the midday sun, "I must thank you for taking care of Sylphy—"

"She did nothing!" Sylphy exclaimed. "She simply led me here, as was her duty as a member of your town! And now she can leave." She glared at Tia. "Go on!"

Georg frowned at Sylphy and looked helplessly to Tia. But his eyebrows furrowed, as though he had only seen her then, and he smiled. "Is that you—young Tia?"

"...You remember me?"

"Of course," laughed the Mayor. "I can recall that bright hair anywhere."

Tia's cheeks warmed. She hadn't expected that. "Mayor, I have something important to tell you."

"She just wants a reward!" Sylphy gasped with indignance. Rempo yelled out a few words Helen would never have wanted Fana to hear as Tia denied it.

"No, it's not that—"

"Hold on," Georg interrupted, raising a hand. "Did Master Gustav not take you in?"

"Um...as a pupil, yes," said Tia. "But what I wanted to say was—"

"Excellent!" Georg clapped his hands. In the background, Sylphy seethed. "It must be providence that led you here at a time when I needed you most!"

Tia blinked. "Really...?"

"Doubt it," Rempo echoed her thoughts.

"Yes," Georg said with such surety, Tia decided not to run off in the opposite direction before he could speak. "Tonight is the Princess' birthday celebration, and the King wants the Master of the Eastern Sword School in attendance! However, Gustav is busy training his students and has responded to noneof my letters. Will you go to him and persuade him to attend?"

"...Can't the King order Master Gustav to attend?"

Georg laughed heartily at the question. "No, King Xenonbart rather enjoys his own benevolence."

Rempo groaned. "Just tell him already!"

"Okay, I'll do it," said Tia. "But—"

"Wonderful! Return to me with good news, young Tia." With that, the Mayor's assistants ushered Georg back into his manor for the rest of the preparations, leaving Tia outside. Sylphy appeared none-too-pleased about it, either, but only glared as she was dragged inside as well. The gate soldier shot Tia a smug look before dismissing her with a wave of his metal fingers. It was too bad she couldn't slap him from behind the gate.

"I can't believe this," Tia muttered, turning around.

"Just do the errand so you'll have the Mayor's ear!" said Rempo. "Maybe you'll even be allowed to attend the Princess' birthday so you can talk to the King!"

"Doubt it," Tia mocked him, but shook her head with all seriousness. "I don't have the clothes for a birthday party."

"Have you forgotten the Book?" Rempo sighed. "You don't have to _buy _anything with it!"

"Oh, right. But first I have to go to Master Gustav..." She would rather be arrested for loitering outside the Mayor's house. At least she wouldn't get an earful then.

"Easy!" Rempo chuckled. "He's your Master, right? Though obviously you're not such a great pupil." Tia grumbled under her breath at that. "It doesn't matter, anyway. You've got the Book now, which means you've got the skill!"

"Right," Tia agreed, trying to lighten her own mood. It wouldn't do to look all beat up in front of Master Gustav—that only meant you looked like a better punching bag, and the Master of the Twin Blades hardly ever held back, even in simple instruction. Taking the Book into her hands and sighing at the hopeful look it gave her, Tia turned to Fana's page to remind herself why she was doing this. Code scanning them all earlier was easy when they were lost in shy conversation or washing dishes, in Helen's case, though she didn't smack them so much as touch the Book to their backs.

"That girl—" Rempo noticed, sitting on Tia's shoulder. "She doesn't have much time left."

Tia stiffened, pausing at the steps before the park. "How can you tell? She's been sick all her life, but she's always survived. Sometimes she gets better."

"I'm the fire spirit," Rempo frowned at her doubt. "I know when the fire in a person isn't enough to—you know. Sustain them anymore. But you can save her."

"I thought I couldn't change people's codes until later?"

"Yeah, personalities and illnesses are harder to change than just properties of simple beasts and monsters," Rempo gave. "It'll take a lot of energy, but you can do it. Chosen Ones are usually known as miracle workers."

"When?" asked Tia with earnest. "How soon?"

Rempo grinned. "Glad you're getting into the Book this much, but not right now! You still gotta inform the king there might be a _war_, right? Then we can move on to finding the others, and when you're powerful enough, you can save her!"

"Find who?"

"I'll tell you later," said Rempo. "For now, let's get to that Master of yours. Double time!"

She had known there was something wrong when she saw the Locked Ill code in Fana's code map, which refused to move even when she grew tired from trying to pull it out when Rempo wasn't looking. If she was going to be reborn in the new world, Tia wanted Fana to be as healthy as any human being. That was one thing worth seeing the end of the world for, at least. So Tia picked up the pace, though she didn't run.

* * *

Master Gustav's Training Hall was a structure about as wide as the park, filled to the brim with students and training dummies. There was never a time there when swords didn't clash, and all the nobles wanted their children educated by the finest swordsman in the land.

The only time Gustav had quickly agreed to any of Tia's requests was when it was permission to bring Rex with her to the training hall, though Rex refused exactly for the purpose of avoiding the haughty nobleboys who took up most of its space. Romaioni was going to train with the master, once, but his constitution proved weak and his mother pulled him out immediately. That was one thing Rex had smiled about.

In any case, Tia hadn't been to the training hall in the past week. With so many gardens to pick and gifts to deliver, she had chosen her own sustenance over skill. She had never been skilled with the sword, of course—she was simply adept at best, but weaponry could never hold her attention as much as the Sunny Hill could, and she only continued training despite Gustav's anger over her sluggishness because he had once tried to take her in when she first arrived at Rhoan. Tia still didn't know why. Maybe he thought she and Duran would get along, or that she looked like she would like swords the way his son obviously didn't—but soon it didn't matter, because she could never help but leave his house in the middle of the night and go to the abandoned shack that was now her home. He scolded her for it in the beginning, but in the end accepted her departure, as long as she would return and train.

Now Tia heavily regretted making that promise. Her fellow pupils found her absolutely odd—a girl, learning to wield a sword instead of the violin?—and Rex was right. Nobles were abhorrent. But this visit wasn't about them, or training. It was about war, and she would deliver her message. Knowing that her future strength would prevail in healing Fana, Tia's resolve was now completely unbreakable...

Until she stepped into the training hall and shut the door behind her.

"Ugh, she's back," someone groaned.

"Great," said someone else. "Now we have to stay out of Master Gustav's way for another week."

Tia kept her head steady but her eyes on the floor as she dodged past the pupils who were nearly knocking her over _by accident _as they continued to train. It was well-known that for some reason, whenever she skipped out on training or was late, Gustav would fly into a rage. Well, not exactly a rage, and there was no flying, but his firm demeanor became irritable especially when Tia made mistakes, and the training hall had grown to hate her for it.

"What's their problem?" Rempo frowned, needlessly preparing a defensive stance.

"Me," Tia muttered.

"_You_."

Tia was hoping he wouldn't spot her until she found him so as to minimize the fuss he would make of her deserting her training again, but she would have to dye her hair a darker color and ditch the pink coat before that would ever happen.

"Good afternoon, Master Gustav," Tia coughed, stepping forward. It wasn't difficult. His other pupils had parted to make way for her in preparation for the likely spectacle.

Rising from the bench from which he often watched his pupils, Gustav crossed his arms. "Where is that _boy_?"

Tia cleared her throat again. "Duran, sir? He's—probably in the fields." Picking flowers, her mind continued, but her mouth said, "Likely...training himself with monsters."

"Nonsense," muttered Gustav. "And are _you_ finished napping in the fields?"

Tia tried not to flinch at the jab, instead forcing a smile. "Actually, Master, I have something urgent—"

"I will not hear the words of one who takes swordsmanship so lightly!" declared Gustav.

"But—

"Prove your worth. Otherwise," he said, eyes darting to the door, "Go home, Tia."

Some boys in the room chuckled, and the others said _ooooh_. Tia felt herself shrink down, and she hated the feeling. This was something she didn't need to hear, and was another reason why she avoided the training hall. She was about ready to turn back when Rempo flew before her.

"What are you doing?" growled the fire spirit. "You're skilled now! You can take him on and deliver the message. Come on, Tia! You're not the Chosen One for nothing!"

"All right," muttered Tia, swatting him out of her face.

Gustav had turned his back on her, walking to a special training room he had built for himself. Now he whirled and narrowed his eyes at her. "What was that?"

"Do it," whispered Rempo.

Tia had expected something like this, but she'd hoped not to have to go through with it. Drawing her swords from their sheathes, she bent her knees into the fighting stance. It was likely far from perfect, but she tried not to doubt herself. _Not a Chosen One for nothing_, she repeated to herself. _Right_.

Gustav laughed, cocking his head at her. "Are you certain you don't want to learn the art of running away instead?"

"This old geezer...!" Rempo flew over and tried to kick his arm to no avail. The hall laughed not at the fire spirit, but the seventeen-year-old girl challenging their master.

It was tempting to run away again, and Tia didn't care much for her pride, but Rempo was all fired up and it was affecting her, somewhat. "Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "I'm not going to run away. Unless..." she swallowed. "Unless you will."

The pupils gasped, and Gustav snorted. "You think that you can miss several hours of training each day, shun training for a week, and match my skill level?"

"Of course you can!" Rempo cheered, swinging his shackles as though he were the one being taunted. "You're the Chosen One of the Book of Prophecy, Tia!"

Inflamed by the fire spirit, Tia shouted, "Yeah!"

The pupils gaped at their only female classmate. She was always laid back, never responded to threats or taunts except to agree that she was indeed weaker and lazier than the rest of them and walk away. Gustav, too, nearly blinked, but his only response was to draw his own blades. "Very well."

The others cleared the room, and at once Tia was extremely aware of the training hall's one exit point–behind her. So the term "turning tail" would never be as true as that moment, if she ran—but something about Rempo being there gave her some pride, or maybe it was shame if she left too soon. This was a first, so she couldn't tell.

"Go!" cried Rempo.

Tia lunged forward, lighter on her feet than she ever thought possible. And so was Master Gustav—she was wrong. In all those days of training, he had clearly held back for the sake of keeping his trainees alive. She swung her left blade, and he met it with his own. He leapt, cleaved down at her, and she parried with both. He pressed, adding his free sword to the weight, but she slid underneath him and threw him backward. Somersaulting to his feet, Gustav whirled. Tia righted herself and breathed heavily, gripping the hilt of her blades with sweaty palms. How did she _do _that!?

Gustav looked just as curious, and those around them bewildered. "...Give up?" Tia hoped.

Her Master gave a smirk in reply. "How amusing. _Again_!"

He lunged this time, and it became a dance for them both. It was debatable, which side exhausted more effort—Gustav because he used his own skill, or Tia because she depended solely on the Book and was still surprised each time she deflected his blows and countered his swings. Each rare time he revealed a weakness, she could see it, and before she had even thought it her body swung along to what must have been the Book's desire to win the fight. Tia managed to lock him into precarious positions just as many times as he did her—but as she would later find, the Book's only weakness was Tia—and Tia's secret weakness was her need to know.

Amidst the gasps and cheers of her fellow pupils—for whom, she had no idea at this point, trying to focus on the swift movements of her body and having her mind keep up—Tia heard the training hall door open. Despite her newfound skill and the clash of swords that kept her hands ringing and her heart pounding, Tia was foolish enough to turn her head—and Gustav had her left sword flying. Tia's right arm deflected, her feet shuffling to regain their balance, but her mind was busy registering the presence of the newcomer, thinking _ironic_, and in a matter of seconds, she was pinned down. The Book underneath her made it even more uncomfortable.

"No!" Rempo yelled. "No fair! Rematch!"

"That's enough," Tia groaned to the floating boy, closing her eyes for a second as the fatigue finally caught up with her. When she felt the cool tip of Gustav's blade leave her neck, she was greeted with the vision of his hand. The hall was silent.

Tia clasped it without a thought and got to her feet. She was met with an even rarer sight—Master Gustav, _almost _smiling. She was frightened enough to step back. "When did you learn such speed?" he asked, circling her as if to check for clues.

"I—well," she scratched the nape of her neck though it was hardly itchy, "trained after hours...? In the fields. On the hill. Yes!"

Gustav thought it extremely suspect. He had only ever caught her sleeping on that wretched sunny hill, but if she said that was it, he had no reason to doubt her. Instead he asked, "What was it you had to say, Tia?"

"The princess' birthday celebration is tonight," she answered, failing to conceal her relieved sigh.

Gustav's face now mirrored the shock of his pupils, still gaping around them. "You came here for _that_?"

"I need to deliver a message to the Mayor, and he wouldn't hear it before I asked you to come, sir."

Gustav scratched his chin. "This was an awfully tedious process for a simple message."

"You have _no idea_," said Rempo, pretending to sit on Gustav's shoulder.

Tia tried not to grin as Gustav continued, "What is it, really? The Mayor will hear me."

The near-mirth was replaced with solemnity. "I was on the hill this morning" –Gustav shot her a nasty look at that– "and I saw Imperial scouts. Five or six of them."

"_What_?" Gustav would bellow if his demeanor wasn't naturally cool. "And you've waited this long to say so?"

"No one would hear me," mumbled Tia.

"What do we do, Master?" asked one of Gustav's better pupils.

"Nothing," sighed Gustav. "Not yet. This is a matter the King must hear." Turning to Tia, he said, "Wait here."

As Master Gustav departed into his individual training room, the stares fell back to her. The shock and awe had reverted to their natural disdain. And, as Rempo had predicted, jealousy.

"How did you do that?" one of them asked.

"Have you _really _been training outside?"

Another scoffed. "Why are you wearing a book? Is that what's giving you all that skill?"

"Speak up!"

"Yes, it's the Book," Tia said plainly. "It's a Book about fighting, and it taught me all I know. It's true."

The pupils stared again, blankly this time. "That's stupid."

"You liar."

"Tell us!"

"These people are insane!" Rempo exclaimed.

"Tia," said a voice less angry than panicked, its owner attempting to push his gloves through the crowd that was swarming her, "That was great!"

The boys parted in confusion to reveal Duran, smiling brightly with his—according to Rex—ridiculous hat with stupid flowers. Rex seemed to know why he loved them, but never told Tia, and Tia never felt close enough with Duran to ask despite the fact that they had almost become siblings. Duran was much like Fana: he tried to help others, but was truly helpless himself. The only difference was that Fana openly acknowledged and made efforts to work around her limitations while Duran liked to cower behind his flowers.

It made Rex sick, but Tia just thought it was funny, if not something she could understand. She no harm in pretending she never caught Duran picking those flowers himself all the time. Thanks to her silence, they had struck up something of a pseudo-friendship, where they got along but never quite knew each other. Duran himself avoided Rex. Tia couldn't spend too much time with someone who didn't like her best friend, especially if the feeling was mutual.

Still, she was grateful for his interruption—even if it was his same interruption and entrance that caused her to lose the fight earlier. Coward though he was known for being, Duran was still Master Gustav's son, and no one could speak ill of him, no matter how truthful, without incurring the wrath of his father. It was something Tia both envied in Duran and admired in her Master.

"Thanks, Duran," she returned his smile, "I couldn't have done it without our training in the fields."

Their fellow pupils looked aghast at such a thought and glared at Duran. _Oops_, thought Tia. Maybe that hadn't been the best thing to do, but she'd never cared for the boys laughing behind his back. She never defended him to anyone either, of course, least of all Rex, but he was the only kind soul she knew in the training hall and she owed him little compliments every now and then. Even if they were lies.

"What is this?" barked Gustav, whose glare scattered the students back across the hall as he emerged from his special room. "If you've nothing to do but gossip, get out! Otherwise, back to your drills!"

Duran and Tia exchanged glances. "I better talk to my dad," he muttered, and stepped forward.

"I'll get to you in a moment," said Gustav, walking past his son to approach Tia with a thin metal blade, the likes of which she'd never seen. It was of much better make than the sword she carried. She liked it, and she would slap it if her Master wouldn't wonder at her taking the Book into her hands for no reason.

"Take this katana," said Gustav. "Present it to the guard and tell them it's a gift. They will let you through, and you may tell the King I will attend tonight."

Tia inclined her head. "Yes, Master." She hated to leave Duran to his fate—one they usually shared when arriving late, though not together—but she'd tried for him already, and she still had all this to do. With a nod his way, she exited the training hall.

When they were far enough into town and out of hearing range, Tia let her serious expression burst into another fit of laughter. "_That_," she began, looking to Rempo, "was amazing! I mean, _I _was amazing! Did you see me? I was dodging everything! Parrying every blow! I even stepped on his _foot_! Nobody does that to Master Gustav!" She unslung the Book for a moment to give it a tight embrace. "_You _are amazing." The Book gave no reply, as always, but closed its eyes in acceptance.

"I told you so!" Rempo laughed. "It's a Chosen One thing. Not your bad attention span, though. Gotta work on that!"

"Yeah, yeah," Tia grinned, "I believe you now. Even if—that means the world really is ending."

Rempo pat her shoulder with a heavy shackle. "Don't worry about it. You'll still be in the new world—and whoever you want to be in it will be, too. But let's warn this kingdom about the Empire first so we can finally get going!"

"Get going where, exactly?"

* * *

Tia wasn't entirely happy to hear there were other spirits bound to the Book of Prophecy—the idea of talking to more than one spirit behind everyone's backs and somehow reacting to whatever they said without giving off the impression that she was a lunatic was going to be as fun-filled as going head-to-head with a Moloch. Though, if finding their bookmarks meant getting more power, she supposed she didn't have much of a choice.

"Hey, who's this guy?" asked Rempo, pointing to the proud stone statue at the head of the fountain when they reached Central Park. "I forgot to ask when we saw that bratty Elf girl."

"That's King Xenonbart," replied Tia, stopping to look up at him. At his feet, a plaque sang praises of his honor, glory, benevolence, and other virtues expected of a King. Tia had never seen him, so she didn't know how accurate the likeness was, but it must have been good enough if the Mayor kept it there. Thankfully, the couples around were too busy in each other's eyes to bother a girl talking to herself and she added, "I heard he comes from a long line of Xeno's. It's a royal family thing."

Rempo rolled his eyes, motioning for her to keep walking. "There were a few kingdoms in the early days of this world. Those days, you didn't need to see statues of heroes to remind you how honorable they were. Their deeds spoke for themselves! Not to mention they were really spiritual, so I actually had more than one person to talk to."

"Sor_ry_," scoffed Tia. "Don't worry, we're bound to find people as crazy as I am who'll listen to you. So what did these heroes do instead of build statues?"

"They were sworn to secrecy, for one," said Rempo, frowning deeply. "And they defeated a wicked demon god and his evil subordinates...so that was pretty good."

"Oh. Wow. Wait, how come the old Chosen One didn't do it? Don't we get to live after the new world comes? Or did he already die?"

Rempo shrugged absentmindedly. "He was...incapacitated at the time. _Anyway_, what I'm saying is these people you could actually trust! Not just windbags who get statues of themselves built."

"You're starting to sound like Rex," sighed Tia. "You don't even know the King. Besides, we don't have a choice if we want him to protect Rhoan. We'll see him soon." If she was being honest with herself, she even felt a little excited. It wasn't every day Master Gustav bade her meet the King of Kaleila.

"Fine. As long as he doesn't get in the way of—hey!" Rempo kicked in the air as a tall redhead bumped into Tia, nearly knocking her off her feet. "Watch it!"

Tia caught herself and glanced back just as the redhead did. Over black underclothes she wore only a blue cloak, her hood half-up. Rows of beads held her cloak together, and Tia had no doubt that she lived in Fortune Teller Alley, though she must not originally have been from Rhoan. What the woman was doing in the higher end of Town Tia had no idea—and no interest, either. When she realized as much, she stopped thinking about what the woman might be. Odd. Such a rush of vague information, even though she hadn't scanned the woman with the Book yet—and Tia didn't think herself observant.

"Oh, forgive me," said the woman, flashing Tia a wry smile. "I didn't see you there."

"It's all right," said Tia, hands clasping her Bookstraps, and walked away as quickly as possible. Something about the woman made her shiver, and she avoided shiver-triggers if she could, like the abandoned house in the upper end of town famous with kids for being haunted. Rex told her to ignore them, so she did.

Tia left the park and made her way past the spread of noble property to reach the road to the castle. Swain Road was somewhere here, which was why she knew her way, but past that she had no idea what the protocol was for getting into the castle, much less find the King. She hoped the katana in her hand really was enough. Then it greeted her—the one sound in the world that held gold for 'least favourite'—armor, and coming her way. The road to the castle was a great staircase flanked by pillars, usually deserted that time of the day with everyone busy in the marketplace or their own homes. Tia jumped behind one of them and waited for the soldiers to march on by before stepping out into safety again—and was bludgeoned into the ground.

"Doesn't anyone watch it in this town?" sighed Rempo. "You okay?"

Tia nodded, having shielded her face with a now dirty coat arm. She felt the Book behind her back. It hadn't protected her fall again, at least. It may have stared at her funny, but she preferred that a Book heralding the new world didn't get dirty.

Once she was up, she glanced over at the offending person, who had cried out herself. A girl all in pink, with lavish skirts and a petticoat so thick Tia supposed that was what had knocked her over. A collection of roses and a crown and ribbon gathered at one side of her head. How that stayed up was a wonder. "Are you all right?"

Grabbing Tia's hand with some force, she pulled herself to stand and shot a look that could kill. She would have to fall in line with the number of _those _Tia had received that day, and the Chosen One was not surprised when the girl spat, "You simpleton! Look what you've done!" Pushing her aside and walking ahead down the last steps, the petticoat girl cried, "Guri Guri, come back!"

"Great," muttered Rempo. "Another weirdo. Smack her with the Book."

"I don't think I want someone like that in the new world," murmured Tia.

"You can always rip out the pages!" said Rempo. "But when you're powerful enough, you can change her."

"Oh, right. Here goes—"

Tia would have bludgeoned the girl with the Book herself if a black cat with a scruffy collar and ears as long as a bunny's hadn't run in from a nearby bush, sniffing at Tia's feet like a dog. As Tia curiously scanned it without her knowledge, the girl in the pink petticoat gave an ear-splitting cheer. "Guri Guri! There you are!" Once he was safely in her arms, the girl focused another glare on Tia. "And as for you! You're from town, aren't you? I can tell by your clothes."

"You must be a noble," she replied, turning for the direction of the castle. "Please excuse me. I have to—"

"No no no!" cried the girl, clutching Tia's arm with such might that a mere tug would probably have ripped it off clean, "You're going to help me find him and that's final!"

"What is wrong with this girl...?" Rempo shuddered. "She's like an animal!"

Tia nodded in agreement and tried loosing her arm from the girl's grip. It was no good. Her fingers were as claws! "...Find who?"

Petticoat girl stared at her as though she had _IDIOT _stamped across her forehead. "The Imperial intruder, who else!? You will take me to see him and he will take me to Prince Valdo!"

It was Tia's turn to give her a look. "Why would you want to see the Prince? He's leading troops against the kingdom. I saw scouts just outside Grana Plains..."

"What?" gasped petticoat girl, setting down Guri Guri to shake Tia back and forth with her seemingly delicate gloved hands, "Why didn't you tell me!?"

"Wh-Why would I tell you?"

The girl released her, huffing and stomping. "Because I'm Princess Dorothea!"

Rempo made a face. "_That's _your princess?"

Tia held her head and shook it a few times. Still there. "Well, Your Highness," she said as politely as she could, trying to remember where she placed her equilibrium, "I was on my way to the King to tell him. And give him this Very Important Katana from Master Gustav of the Eastern Sword School." She showed her the blade she had nearly dropped herself. "Very Important stuff."

"Look," sighed Dorothea, "I can tell one of my handmaidens to deliver the news! For now, you _must _take me to those scouts!"

"With all due respect, Your Highness," said Tia, finding the conversation more tiring than her fight with Master Gustav, "I don't think those soldiers were here looking to negotiate." She didn't even bother mentioning the knight-turned-Moloch. That would end with more screaming, and she'd had enough to last a month. Or forever.

"I—I can get through to Prince Valdo, I just know it!" Dorothea insisted, lunging at Tia again. The Chosen One jumped sideways before the princess could grab hold of her shoulder. "Hey! Come here—oh?"

The princess stopped and glanced down at the cat. Guri Guri's back arched, his tail shooting into the air. He hissed, baring small fangs, if one could call them that.

"What's wrong?" asked Dorothea, crouching to pick him up again. "Guri Guri?"

"I'd listen to the cat," said Rempo, dumping a heavy arm on Tia. "Animals have better senses than you—look!"

High above them on the archway heading the pillars to the castle was an Imperial Knight, complete with sword and shield. If Tia was right, he wouldn't need those. "Not again..." she glanced at Dorothea. "Looks like we don't have to do anything after all. Except maybe run—"

The Imperial Knight leapt down from the ledge and laughed, voice as frightening as the one who came before him. But instead of guttural or growling sounds, this one seemed to almost _neigh_ as he expressed his joy. "Ah-hi-hi-hi," said the Knight, advancing towards them, "the Book of Prophecy!"

Dorothea looked confused, but foolishly approached. "You!" she pointed, "You're from the Waisen Empire! Tell me, is Prince Valdo—"

The knight swiped an arm and sent Dorothea flying back into Tia, who fell atop the Book once more. Guri Guri went in their place, hissing and leaping at what he seemed to know was a monster, but was just as easily thrown back, and slammed into the archway. He twitched.

"Dammit!" yelled Rempo, "Get up, Tia!"

Nudging the princess off with her elbows and knees, Tia drew her blades and looked to the Imperial Knight—which by that time had burst out of his armor to reveal not a Moloch, but another monster altogether—an Orobas. That explained the neighing. An Orobas was a monster of old legend, a bipedal horse-beast who revelled in the spilled blood of men, like the rest of their ilk.

"What a day," moaned Tia, though her complaint was overpowered by Dorothea's scream. If that hadn't deafened the monster, she didn't know what would. "Get back," she told the princess, shaking her foot in the direction of the archway as a sign. The princess huffed but complied, and Tia could now properly face the Orobas. _Unfortunately_.

"Why?" she asked. It was a valid enough question. Sure, smacking people's faces was fun, but too much responsibility came with wielding the Book. Not to mention if she handed it over to the monster, it would suck out all his energy for lack of creation power and kill him. And how did all these creatures suddenly know about it? "Why do you want the Book of Prophecy?"

"Ah-hi-hi-hi-hi!" guffawed the Orobas, his entire body shaking with mockery. "Pathetic human! You needn't know. You'll be dead soon!"

"I don't think so!" said Rempo. "Tia! Sic 'im!"

"I wish I didn't have to," she murmured, but held her stance. It was then she saw the monster's weapon—a sickle nearly twice her size. She and Rempo yelped, dropping down and flying up as the Orobas swung it at them. On her knees, Tia's body launched itself onto the Orobas and dug a blade into his foot.

The monster roared, neighed with pain, and kicked her off with a swing of his sickle. She landed in the bushes as Rempo's voice rang out somewhere. "Lemme use my firepower!"

"Go for it!" Tia yelled, rolling to the side just in time to dodge the cleaving sickle. She felt the air grow cold around her and her limbs weaken as Rempo gathered heat to himself. Seconds later, he blew a trail of fire at the Orobas, whose silky black mane caught fire immediately.

"Now!" cheered Rempo. Cringing, Tia let her arms and feet lead the jump and crossed her blades together, slicing behind the horse's head. The Orobas staggered forward, dropping its sickle, but breathed. Upon the fire spirit's prodding and quick Ill code switching just for good measure, Tia plunged one sword into his head and looked away.

She took a few steps backward, retaking her sword and trying not to hear the slick blood trailing from it, and fell to her posterior. Beside her, Dorothea cradled Guri Guri in her arms and watched wide-eyed as the Orobas, fire on its back dying, lay motionless.

"Princess Dorothea!"

"Are you all right?"

"Your Highness!"

Rempo groaned at the soldiers and handmaidens filing in from the direction of the castle all at once, surrounding Dorothea and helping her stand. "_Now _the cavalry comes?"

"We don't have a cavalry," replied Tia.

"Oh, Guri Guri!" cried Dorothea, shaking off her entourage. "He was hurt trying to protect us!"

Rempo looked pitifully at the cat, whose blow to the arch wall had rendered him limp—but never did he whimper. "That's one brave cat," he remarked. "Let's save him. Go to his page!"

Getting to her feet, she gave the Book an apologetic shrug and turned to Guri Guri's page. A Locked Wound code. Rempo was surprisingly calm as he coached her—surround the bad code with enough Light and Hope codes and it would disappear. Tia had a few of them on hand, but not enough Light. While the entourage was busy fussing over the cat, Tia scanned them all, including Dorothea.

Only one of her handmaidens, who all had similar features and strawberry blonde hair, had the code she needed. Though it made her lose breath, she attempted to take a Light code from the woman—and succeeded. As soon as Tia switched it to the cat's page, Guri Guri rose, shook his fur, and approached her.

_Purr_, said the cat, brushing against her leg.

Tia couldn't help but shiver. There was something _wrong_ with the cat. She didn't know what, but she could feel it. Especially when the cat looked up to her as though—grateful. "Weird," she repeated, surprisingly, only the first time that day.

"What on earth..." A soldier shook his head in disbelief.

"It can't be!" gasped another handmaiden.

"That's right!" said Rempo, "That's the power of the Book of Prophecy!"

A shadow fell over the face of the maid with the Light code—Shalala, Tia recalled it said on her page. "Sorcery!" she cried, taking a step before her charge. "It must be sorcery!"

"Th-That's right," the soldier stuttered, "It m-must be witchcraft! Get behind us, princess! And turn around so she can't work her magic on you!"

"B-But!" Dorothea tried to fight Shalala, who forcibly turned her back, "Didn't she save Guri Guri...?"

"She could have been the one to cast it on Guri Guri in the first place!" cried Shalala. "Girls!"

The rest of the handmaidens cried out and covered the princess, backs turned to Tia along with the soldier. "That's a little farfetched," she frowned. Not to mention if she truly intended to harm them, turning their back on her wasn't the best course of action. "It was the Waisen knight who attacked us! Look—"

The Orobas had disappeared, just like the Moloch. Even the black blood on her blades had dried and gone, the only trace of the Waisen knight being the pieces of armor scattered on the road.

Right on cue, a purple smog filled the area. Tia drew closer to Rempo in case it was another Waisen attack, but familiar heels clicking behind her told her otherwise. It was the redhead who'd bumped into her not long ago, wearing that same crooked smile. Her expression betrayed neither pleasure nor irritation; just that it was there for the sake of it.

"You," said Tia, lamely.

"Follow me," she replied.

It didn't sound like a request, and at that point, Tia thought very little of being arrested for saving the lives of the princess and her cat. Despite Rempo's reservations and her own, she followed.

* * *

Tia held the Book to her chest and stretched her legs on the wooden floor.

"Stupid witch!" cried Rempo, charging at the ceiling to no avail.

"Well," said Tia, resting her head on the floorboards, "that's the last time I ever trust a seer."

Rempo glared at her from the trapdoor that refused to budge. "You shouldn't have trusted her to begin with! What did I tell you?"

"How was I supposed to know?" Tia shrugged, opening an eye. "She saved us from the princess' crazy entourage. The least I could do was read her tablet predicting the end of the world and let her read my fortune. _Nobody _could know she had a trapdoor there. Even you were expecting a magic spell or something, right?"

"Aaaaaargh!" Rempo mussed his fiery hair with his shackles, kicking his feet at the ceiling and spinning in the air. "She already said her power didn't work on us, right? You should've expected _more_!"

"Hey," said Tia, giving something akin to a chuckle, "You've been alive for millennia, right? I happen to be new at this. Let me off easy for an hour or so and maybe we'll figure it out."

"Easy...?" Rempo repeated. "An hour or so...?"

Tia sighed, sitting up and looking around. So the pretty witch woman—Nanaida Seer, she called herself—had a secret basement underneath her house. She'd brought Tia to Fortune Teller Alley, true to the girl's suspicions, and after attempting a few failed magic tricks, asked Tia to read her tablet. It looked something like a Metalize Tablet, or what Rempo had explained to be a page that had flown out of the Book during the early days of the world's creation, but it was more important than the others she had seen so far. It predicted the end of the world—and some details, like spears and dragons and blankets of ice—not that Tia read it aloud.

Rempo was as suspicious about the woman as Rex was about the world and forbade her from telling the woman the tiniest bit of information. Nanaida accepted her vague answers well enough and asked Tia to stand before her crystal ball for a reading of the future. She promised it wasn't a trick, and foolishly Tia had thought that even if it was, her 'base magic' couldn't beat the Book's creation power. Rempo had said as much. If only creation power could avoid trapdoors.

Now they were here in the basement. She was sure Nanaida had a door or something to get back upstairs. Why else would she keep so many crates of food down here if not for her own sustenance?

"Yeah," Tia nodded. "I just fought Master Gustav _and _an Orobas,toyed with a bunch of code maps, including that maid, which was worlds more tiring than usual, and was accused of sorcery. I deserve some rest, right? This basement is cold, which makes it a good spot..."

"Rest...?" If Tia had watched Rempo more carefully, she would have noticed the smoke coming out of his ears. "Will you get up?"

"I am up," said Tia, standing and looking through the crates. Fresh fruits and vegetables. No wonder.

"You have no sense of urgency—at all!" Rempo burst, prompting Tia to drop a tomato back into its box. "Do you know _why _we have to get out of here?"

Tia didn't interrupt. Over the course of the day she had learned that it was natural for Rempo to sound a little too enthusiastic about everything, but now he just sounded upset. She'd always managed to dodge confrontations enough to avoid 'upset' before.

"Because you have to code scan the _world_, Tia!" he finished, spreading his arms. "And do you know what you can't do when everything is ravaged by war? _Huh_?"

Tia's eyes fell to the Book, who didn't meet her gaze. "...Code scan."

Rempo took a deep breath. "This isn't a game, Tia!" Before she could interrupt, he continued. "You can moan _Why me_ all day if you want but in the end, you're gonna have to face the fact that it was you! For some stupid reason, the Book chose _you_, and you're either gonna make the best world we can make or you'll end up in a world where your best friend—that sick, dying girl out there—is going to be just as sickly and helpless. And it'll all be because you wanted to _sit around _and_ relax_! Do you even want to save her!?"

"Of course I do!" Tia growled. "It's just—"

"Then get off that butt and _get to work_!"

Tia felt her eyes sharpen. She'd given her fair share of glares, usually behind people's backs, but this one she actually meant. All she ever wanted to do was live peacefully. Just when she was able to finally relax after so many days of work, work, _work_, the Book decided it had to come along because—oh, gee! Too much corruption in the world! Time to bid farewell, Tia. And it's _your _job to make it a grand one.

The argument was at the tip of her tongue, and her index finger was ready to point out every flaw in the fire spirit's stupid speech, when Tia realized she couldn't. For all his yelling and waving and making everyone think she was insane, she _did_ want to cry and moan about it because it wasn't fair! She had never asked for any kind of responsibility. She would have run for Mayor if she wanted that—not that the job was up for grabs. Tia just wanted to write her novel and come into enough money to find her parents, but now there was no time for it.

Tia wanted to smack Rempo in the face, and not with the Book—but only because he was right.

The words died on her lips, and her finger fell. After a long, agonizing pause, she mumbled out a reply. "...Fine."

"...Good," said Rempo. He crossed his arms and floated next to her as she slung the Book over her shoulder.

Tia started, then stopped walking right before the door at the end of the basement. She half-glared at the fire spirit for the sake of pride she didn't know existed until they met that morning. "Good speech," she said begrudgingly. "Really got me going there."

Rempo's shocked expression closed, then widened into a grin. He rubbed his nose with a shoulder and shrugged. "Well, y'know. I'm fire. I ignite people."

"You mean _incite _people?"

"...Obviously!"

"I'm impressed."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm hundreds and millions of years old! I know things. Now keep walking."

"Yessir," sighed Tia, turning the knob and making her way into what she hoped were the stairs leading above the basement. "...Huh."

After the past few hours, Tia wasn't sure why she expected anything to be easy that day.

"So," said the Chosen One to the gaping fire spirit and the hundred doors that stood side by side before them, "do you know how to get out of here?"

* * *

Tia sat in the middle of the room, knees to her chest. They'd tried everything, to be sure—going in a single direction, taking every door adjacent to the door in the place of the one they had taken previously, guessing at random, and anything else they could come up with. She couldn't tell how long they'd been down there, at this point. No growling from her stomach yet, which meant it wasn't late, but that didn't make it feel any less like forever.

Rempo knocked on each door to check if maybe the requirement to pass and find the correct door was to 'politely' knock on each of them first and see which opened.

"We tried that already," she reminded him. "Maybe the Book knows something."

Without waiting for his reply, she searched the Book's Map section—and presto, there was a page on it! Room of Doors, aptly named—but there was only one page. She would have expected loads of them, what with each area in town having a page for itself, and even each house! To those she had been, at least.

"I knew it!" said Rempo, comprehending Tia's way of thinking as she flipped the next few pages and saw only blank areas, "This is an illusion!"

"It's a pretty good one," said Tia, getting to her feet and looking around. "I don't even remember where we came from." She closed the Book and asked, "Do you?"

It blinked, watching her—intensely? She felt something odd with the way it gazed at her—and looking away.

"The Book only speaks through its pages, remember?" Rempo rolled his eyes, hovering over Tia's head. "Hey, look! Something's being scribbled into the page!"

"Shh," Tia waved her hand at him and peered at the fine print. "Why is its writing so small on this page?"

Rempo shrugged and flew closer, squinting just as hard. "Aha! It says... _A room as old as the world. It is twice said that in an orphaned world, only he would think to look back._"

"Whaaat? Give me that," Tia nudged Rempo off with her shoulder and brought the Book closer to her face. "...Okay, that really is what it says. What does that mean? Wait, if the room is as old as the world, shouldn't you know about it?"

Rempo looked more than irritated at the question. Instead of snapping another time, however, he simply wiped it off his face and shrugged. "I wasn't the Chosen One. I didn't know everything about what was in the Book."

"So the old Chosen One—"

"Look, does the Book say anything else?"

Tia made a face at his interruption but checked anyway. "No." Shaking the Book with its pages open, she sighed, "We'll never get out of here! Help us, Book of Prophecy! You're our only—whoa!"

The Book shut closed in her hand. Its one eye watched her carefully, as though waiting for her to do something dangerous, but Tia could only reply with a clueless look. The eyeball facing her then rolled in one direction. Tia followed its gaze. "That way?"

"Might as well," Rempo shrugged, and opened the door at which it stared. The fire spirit sighed. "This is the room we fell into!"

The Book answered him with a glare. Rempo yelped, but shrugged. "What? What did you expect?"

It opened again to the page. Room of Doors. _A room as old as the world. It is twice said that in an orphaned world, only he would think to look back_.

"This doesn't make sense," Rempo grumbled. "Why would it be said twice? Who said it first and who said it second?"

Tia stared at the doorknob for another age before it came to her. There was no thinking about it—it simply came to her, like the information regarding that Nanaida Seer the first time she saw her at Central Park. That she was a foreigner, though she looked enough like a Rhoan native.

"Got it."

"What?"

"Just watch," chuckled Tia, rolling back her shoulders and tilting her head side to side. Clearing her throat, she enunciated, "In an orphaned world, only he would think to look back. In an orphaned world, only he would think to look back. Ta-dah! Open the door."

"Ohh, I get it!" laughed Rempo, turning the knob and kicking the door open—to reveal the same cold basement. "...Now I don't. What?"

"It was supposed to work! I said it twice!" groaned Tia. "Maybe—who was he? Who looked back?"

"Kullervo, I guess," mumbled Rempo.

"Kullervo?"

"Yeah, the Chosen One before you! Isn't it obvious?" snapped the fire spirit.

"Just asking." Tia shot him a dirty look that made him wipe off his own. "But you're right. Obviously the old Chosen One made this room if it's as old as the world, right? So he would look back. But—all right, now I really have it."

"We'll see," said Rempo, mood changing quickly.

Tia took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "In an orphaned world, only I would think to look back. In an orphaned world, only I would think to look back."

She was correct. The door opened to a room no bigger than her shack. Its walls were blank and its only ornaments were seemingly perpetual torches and a small pedestal jutting out from a corner. Something gleamed atop it.

"It's a necklace," said Rempo, wrinkling his nose. "Not a very nice one."

Tia held it to her eyes, thin hemp intricately braided and looped around a rusted ring. It was poorly made—not much better than Rex' old creations—and only a small spot of it still looked brand new. "What would the old Chosen One want with this?"

Rempo huffed. "How should I know?"

"You knew him, right? Kullervo...?" Tia shrugged. "Anyway, I guess this is mine. From one Chosen One to the next."

Tia set one of the Book's straps over her shoulder and prepared to lock the item around her neck. Simple it was, but precious all the same if it came from the old Chosen One. Maybe it was something secretly passed along from one to another without knowledge of the spirits? That was a warming thought.

"No!" Rempo knocked it out of her hands before she could put it on. "Don't wear it!"

"Very polite." Tia picked it up from the floor and frowned. "What's wrong? It looks simple enough. Just because he didn't tell you about it, doesn't mean it's dangerous."

"Sure it does!" said Rempo. "That thing could be tainted with bad magic, for all you know!"

"But—"

"I know things!"

Tia rolled her eyes. "Okay, let's ask the Book of Prophecy." Scanning the necklace, she read over its page. "See? Nothing wrong with it."

"Lemme see..." Rempo floated over to the page and blinked. "That's it? That doesn't even make any sense."

"Meaning it's harmless. I'm going to wear it now."

"That's not what it said! Please," said Rempo, covering her hand with his shackled arms. "Just do me this one favor and keep it in your pocket or something if you have to be stubborn. Just don't wear it!"

Tia looked over the old hemp and ring and shook her head. "I'm sorry, _what_ is your problem with this simple little necklace?"

"And don't ask me that question!"

"So—two favors." Rempo glared. "All right, I won't ask. Sheesh." Tia pocketed the necklace and turned back for the Room of Doors. "But this whole thing doesn't solve the problem of getting back upstai—ooh. What is that?"

In the spot she'd taken up only minutes ago was something that actually gleamed this time—and glimmered, and shone, and was all manner of inviting. It shimmered the bright life of spring, the blistering heat of summer, the failing warmth of fall and the algid winds of winter alternately.

"A portal!" Rempo cheered. "Come on, tell it where you want to go and—"

"All right," said Tia, eagerly stepping into it, "back upstairs. Maybe that woman has more tablets that can clue us in on this necklace here. If she doesn't"

–a blinding flash–

"send us back down here first. Whoa!" Tia blinked. They'd returned to the first floor and stood where Nanaida once had before her foggy crystal ball. The big tablet of prophecies and the creepy candelabra that barely lit the place were still present, but the witch herself was nowhere to be seen.

"You never let me finish," grumbled Rempo. "Portals like that take you anywhere you want! You could've gone home instead of getting back here."

"Except we want to check her place for clues on the necklace, remember?" Tia patted her inner coat pocket.

"Not we. Just you. But—Chosen One Tia, actually showing interest in things besides going to sleep? This is insanity!"

"...You know you _ignited _me to do it."

"Shut up."

"So," Tia ignored him, "when am I going to get those portal powers you promised?"

"Probably close to when the world ends," replied the fire spirit.

"Great..." Tia muttered, lip curling, but it was the least of her worries. She had never been so happy to be in the first floor of a house. It was a little too dark for her taste and slightly musty, but it would be fine once she found the tablet. Opening the door to Fortune Teller Alley to let some air in, she declared, "Freedom! Ahh."

"Tia?" Rempo coughed, "Open your eyes."

A pair of soldiers, one of them with a fist raised to knock, gawked at her.

"Oops," Tia smiled apologetically, "Wrong door!"

"That's her!" cried the second one right as she slammed the door shut.

"_Why me_," she whined, hopping to the trapdoor and repeatedly stomping a heel at it. "Come on, trapdoor. Don't fail me now!"

Rempo watched helplessly as the soldiers burst into the witch's home and flanked Tia. She could only tell them apart by their voices. Was there a body type requirement for Kaleilan knights? She would have preferred bulkier men. "Trying to escape!?"

"Uh—no!" Tia tittered, easing out of the stomping and simply shaking her foot. "There was a rock in my shoe, flew in when I opened the door...? I had to take it out before I surrendered."

"Ohh," one nodded in comprehension.

"Liar!" said the second. "Excuses! Arrest her!"

"I was just giving up," said Tia, folding her hands together.

"Silence!" hissed the same man. "You'll be taken to the King!"

"That's it!" Rempo pumped his arms in the air. "I'm going to incinerate them!"

"Bad idea," Tia shook her head.

"What is?" asked the calmer soldier, binding her wrists together with cold manacles.

Tia shivered. "Uh—escaping. You know. I'm innocent, so I'm just waiting to be released..."

"Yeah, right," grumbled the suspicious one, pulling at the chain connected to her wrists.

"You're going to let them arrest you like a dog!?" Rempo looked about to roar, if he only could.

"I don't have a choice," Tia mumbled, lowering her head as they led her out to Fortune Teller Alley.

"That's right," sneered the second soldier. He hauled her off, pulling at her chain every so often while bystanders and passersby shot her odd and curious looks. She wondered if this was really rock bottom—watched by the characters of Fortune Teller Alley like _she _was the freak. Only one girl stood out among them, dressed in an elegant frock of clearly noble make. Silk ribbons parted her light hair into pigtails, and though she couldn't be older than six or seven, she was alone.

As soon as they locked eyes, the girl bounded over and marched beside her. "Lady, why are they arresting you?" she asked.

Tia glanced around for anyone who might dress the same way—nobles were easy to spot among the "rabble" that defined Rex's neighborhood and herself—but no one seemed to even notice her. Shrugging, she answered, "Because I'm innocent, that's why."

"That makes no sense," the girl informed her, then pointed to the side of Tia's head. "Who's that? He's tiny."

Rempo looked to his chest and back at the child. "What the...? I'm outta here," he grumbled, and vanished.

"Where did he go?"

As surprised as her companion, Tia blinked. "He's—er. Shy."

"Be quiet!" barked the nasty soldier. His partner ignored them both, seemingly distracted by the bizarre get-ups that made Fortune Teller Alley the almost separate world it was from town.

The child covered her mouth. "If you're innocent," she whispered loudly, "why are you being arrested?"

"It's just topsy-turvy day today, that's why," Tia blankly explained.

"Oh!" the girl giggled. "_That _makes sense_..._When you get out, do you wanna play? I'm Meenya!"

"Tia. And all right...? I'll be back," she hoped, wondering where in the world this girl's irresponsible parents might be.

"Yay! I'll be waiting!" Meenya promised, then craned her small neck to the sky. "Look at the time! I'll see you soon!"

With a flying kiss, she ran off and disappeared into the bustling crowd. Tia blinked. "Hey. I thought you said only I could see you?"

"And spiritual people," said the fire spirit, reappearing on her shoulder. "But that girl's just weird."

"I thought you'd be glad of someone else to talk to."

"Not a kid! And it doesn't matter right now. Maybe you've forgotten that you're being _arrested_?"

Watching out for Rex and finding no familiar face, Tia stuck with keeping her head down. If any of her customers saw her like this, she'd be out of business for life. "I just hope that King is as benevolent as the plaque says."


End file.
